Rest Well, ‘First Lady'

Friends, family, celebs and top government officials said their final goodbyes to progeria sufferer Ontlametse Phalatse.

- Ayanda Sitole

SHE was on Earth for just 18 years but defied the odds by living far longer than anyone had expected. And her final farewell was a mixture of sadness and celebration as politicians, celebrities, chiefs and children gathered to lay her to rest. Songbird Lira captured the mood of mourners who had come to bid farewell to the “miracle girl” when she sang Something Inside So Strong – orginally performed by British singer Labi Siffre – which also happened to be the favourite song of Ontlametse Phalatse, the girl everyone had come to honour at her funeral in Hebron in the North West.

“Her work reached out to all of us,” Chief Tebogo Motheo Mamogale of the Bakwena ba Mogopa said in his eulogy. “She had a lion’s heart and the bravery to make herself heard.”

He called Ontlametse a social activist and lauded her as a leader who joined the struggle to improve the lives of the young and elderly. Before her passing, the teenager had regularly rallied children in her community to serve the elderly and distribute sanitary towels to underprivileged schoolgirls in her area through her charity organisation, Ditsala Children Shield and Projects.

Ontlametse’s tiny black coffin took centre stage as speaker after speaker recounted the vibrant life of the young woman many had come to know and love as the “tiny giant”.