She Gave Her Life To Others

Beloved nurse Anncha Kepkey looked forward to retiring and becoming a granny – now she will never get that chance

- Kim Abrahams

He'll never forget their 30th wedding anniversary. William George Kepkey and his wife Anncha were as madly in love as the day they met and while they initially had big plans to celebrate their pearl anniversary, they decided to put them on hold for a year.

“It was a quiet affair, just the two of us,” William recalls of their special day in October last year.

“She worked that day and afterwards she had a swim. She said we must do a bigger thing next year because at the time we had financial constraints.”

Little did they know it would be their last anniversary together. Just seven months later, Anncha (52) would have died of Covid-19 – just as she was set to become a grandmother for the first time.

It’s been a week since she was laid to rest at Durbanville Memorial Park in Cape Town and William (56) struggles to talk about his beloved wife without breaking down. “She was so scared of contracting the virus that she carried a bottle of sanitiser with her everywhere she went,” he says. “Bottles were placed all over the house. She was so careful.”

But Anncha worked in a high-risk environment: she was an assistant manager of nursing in trauma and emergency services at Tygerberg Hospital and became the third nurse at the hospital to die of the virus. Late last month, the hospital confirmed 105 of its healthcare workers had tested positive.

Government needs to do more to protect those at the frontline of the pandemic, a heartbroken William says.

“Not enough is being done,” he says.