NEW LIFE, NEW HOPE

He thought he’d never feel joy again after the devastating loss of two children in the space of two years, but Mike Vosloo has found happiness with wife Danieta and their baby son

- JANA VAN DER MERWE

A HUNGRY baby fusses in the background. With practised ease Mike Vosloo lifts his son into his tanned arms and gives him a bottle – and within a few minutes the infant sinks into a blissful milky half-sleep.

For Mike, the boy’s birth was nothing short of a miracle, considering all the pain and heartache of the past few years.

McKaydén was born in October, just over five years after Mike’s daughter, Mundolene (17), died while the family was on holiday in Mauritius. She collapsed and died after an argument with her stepmom, who’d given her a slap to the head.

Two years later there was more hardship for Mike when his son Marnuwico (13) died in a freak accident with his off-road motorbike.

Mike’s face lights up as he tells us about the unexpected turn his life took in the wake of all this tragedy.

Days after Marnuwico’s death, Mike met Danieta (27), who had once been a teaching assistant at his son’s former school. The couple married in June last year in an intimate ceremony in Margate, KwaZulu-Natal.

When their little blessing arrived Mike couldn’t be happier to be a dad again at age 51. “It feels great!” he says, his excitement evident. “I don’t regret any of it. It’s something good that I look forward to. It’s a new life, a new way of doing things.

“There are challenges, but I’m not afraid – age doesn’t make any difference.”

HE’S overjoyed with the new addition to the family, which also includes Danieta’s son, Danie (9) – who Mike is in the process of adopting – and Mike’s 19-year-old son from a previous relationship.