Love After Darkness

Two years after losing her family in a Kabul attack Hannelie has found happiness again.

- Hilda Van Dyk

IT FELT as if her world had been ripped apart. How do you go on after you’ve seen the bullet-riddled bodies of your husband and children? This is what went through Hannelie Groenewald’s mind after her family were gunned down in a Taliban attack in Afghanistan (YOU, 11 December 2014).

In the months that followed she found a way to get through the trauma. When she was with other people she forced herself to put on a brave face, but when she was alone she allowed the tears to flow freely.

Two years down the line she isn’t putting on a front when she meets us in a Pretoria coffee shop for our exclusive interview – she’s truly radiant. The reason for her happiness? She’s put her life back together and found love again.

Yet when we quiz her about the new man in her life she becomes guarded. “He’s very special,” is all she wants to say about the businessman from Pretoria.

While Hannelie (47) was mourning the death of her husband, Werner (46), son, Jean-Pierre (17), and daughter, Rodé (15), Hannes Laubscher gave her emotional support – and eight months ago their friendship blossomed into romance.

“I believe God sent him to me,” Hannelie says. “He helped me a lot through everything.”

Hannes’ youngest daughter is the same age as Rodé was when the killers struck.

“There are a lot of similarities between them,” Hannelie says. “I have a good relationship with her.”

As a friend Hannes was there for her, supporting her through the darkest time of her life. But it never occurred to her their relationship might develop into something more.

“I had to have closure to carry on. You can’t start working on another relationship if you haven’t closed the old one.”