MY KIND JAMIE

Jamie Bartlett was known for playing baddies, but in real life he was just the opposite, his grieving partner Rosa tells YOU

- LESEGO SEOKWANG

HE WAS a rogue and a scoundrel, a schemer who always had a dastardly H plan up his sleeve.

His name was Mike O'Reilly in Isidingo and David Genaro in Rhythm City and anyone who watched South African television over the past 25 years knew they were in for a treat when Jamie Bartlett brought one of these villains to life.

Jamie was a multi-award-winning actor as well as a popular leadership and business etiquette coach and mentor, charismatic and friendly in person, and the consummate professional on set. He was also seemingly in the bloom of health.

Which is why there was such shock when the 55-year-old recently died in his sleep at his Johannesburg home, the victim of sudden cardiac arrest.

"He was such a force of nature I didn't think he could ever die,' fellow actor Nick Boraine wrote on Twitter.

His death has sent the acting fraternity and his fans, friends, and family reeling but no one is more devastated than Rosa Onious (30), his life partner and manager.

The sheets on their bed remain unwashed as she does everything she can to hold onto memories of the love of her life: his scent, his laughter, his voice, and the sound of his kisses.

When YOU speaks to her a few days after his death, she addresses Jamie in the first person. "I'm not ready for you to go," she says. "I can't go on without you, not yet. I need you... I just can't..

Rosa is battling to understand how Jamie can just be gone.

"He was fine, he was healthy, he didn't complain about pain or anything, Rosa says.

"Jamie was a health freak - we didn't eat starch, he drank his kombucha tea and juices, which were a concoction of all these different herbs that cleanse your body. His skin was beautiful, he was ageing gracefully and looking after himself.