ALGOA Park poet, Rozetta Whitting, hopes to share her experience as a mother to a child with Down syndrome, and hopefully encourage others in her poetry collection titled Hemelgedigte, which translates to Heaven Poems.
In the book, which has been published by Milborrow Media, Whitting writes about her experience as a mother of two boys, Alvin Whitting who was born with Down syndrome and Alan Whitting, who was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer last year.
The book, which features 40 different poems, also focuses on her experience after losing her firstborn child, Lana, when she died in a car accident at two-and-a-half years old.
Whitting wrote her first poem in 1995 about her frustration after Alvin’s Sunday school teacher requested for him to be removed from her class because she struggled to connect with him.
She, however, stopped writing for some time because she did not believe that she was good enough to be a poet.
“I believed that a writer should always have something to write about, but I thought I did not have anything to write about,” said Whitting.
She said despite only writing her second poem in 2017, she never put down her pen and when something came to mind, she wrote it down.
Whitting said her son, Alvin, inspired her to write her first poetry collection which features English and Afrikaans poems as a motivational message about Down syndrome.
She said 13 months after her daughter’s death she gave birth to a baby with down syndrome.
“I was still mourning the death of my baby girl and then I gave birth to a child with special needs. It was heartbreaking and I struggled to come to terms with it,” said Whitting.
She further said her favourite poem in the book is Hemelkind, which translates as Heaven Child and is about children with special needs and how grateful she is that her son is healthy.
“Children with Down syndrome are special children. I am grateful for my son’s health because many children born with Down syndrome have heart defects and other health problems,” said Whitting.
“I cannot write fiction; I only write about my own reality. There are many parents in similar situations or have experienced some of the same things that I have which means they will be able to relate to my book.”
After submitting her poems to various publications, one of Whitting’s poems will be featured in the Best New African Poets for 2019 anthology, which she is very excited about.
In her free time, Whitting also does recordings for the Master Class Writers podcast. On the podcast, which is hosted by Selwyn Milborrow, she reads poems to the sick and elderly at hospitals.
“It is very therapeutic for me to be able to read my poems to others,” said Whitting.
Apart from poems about her children, she also wrote a poem about arthritis titled My Biggest Enemy and about Christmas, titled The Silly Season.
The launch for Hemelgedigte will be on May 9 at ACVV Algoa Park at 14:00. Tickets are R50 per person and a finger lunch will be served.
A signed copy of the book will be on sale at R150 each. To purchase a book after the launch contact Rozetta Whitting on 081 357 7831.
