NEW BABY, NEW HOPE

Their daughter has brought healing to the couple who lost their two children three years ago in a drowning tragedy

- JODY-LYNN TAYLOR

THREE years ago if felt as if a light switch was flipped off, plunging their world into darkness and despair. The joyous sound of children’s laughter was replaced with bitter weeping, and they thought they ’d never recover from their loss.

But now a ray of light has pierced through the fog and the gurgles and giggles of a little baby are filling their home once more. And for Odeté and André de Vries it feels like nothing short of a miracle.

The couple welcomed their baby girl, Alleyahné, seven months ago and they’re overjoyed at her arrival.

She’s still too little to know about the tragedy that plunged her family into mourning. But one day her parents will tell her about her two siblings, Dameon and Kayllé, who died at the age of seven and five respectively, three years ago.

André and Odeté of Gansbaai in the Western Cape had woken from a Sunday afternoon nap to find the kids gone. After searching they found a basket containing biscuits and apples near the nearby dam, which was fuller than usual because of rainy weather, and a canoe that had been tied up earlier that day.

The children’s bodies were found in the dam and their deaths would’ve been instant, experts told the grieving parents. It’s believed they went out on the canoe and it capsized.

They thought they’d never be able to speak about Dameon and Kayllé without crying, Odeté and André tell YOU.

They also thought they wouldn’t have more kids.

“We’d said we don’t want any more children, but the Lord makes His own decisions,” Odeté says. “He decides what’s best for us.”