It was a Saturday in the morning, if my memory servers me well. I was in bed... still asleep,it was early in the morning maybe around 9 Or 10 O'clock. And the phone rings , It's my little brother using my mom's phone his name is Joseph and his 12 years old.so I answered the phone like, hello? "Hello, Ashton?"I said, hey Joseph what do you want?"How are you?" I'm fine thanks."I am also fine, thank you. Oh, Ashton are you busy?" Yes sort of,why? "No simply because, mom's been shot". I am sorry, what? " Yeah , mom has been shot and we are at the hospital.can you come?" Mom's been shot, okay, what do you mean?... of course I can come, which hospital? and he tells me the hospital. I started panicking, jump out of bed , I am running around. I am trying to put my clothes on , some things are backwards. I don't even notice, I don't even care, I'm losing my mind. for your own information I was still studying at college. I had no car and no money to take a cab. It was just a disaster ... I had to go around asking strangers for help, because I had no one to help me. unfortunately no one was interested. So I had to walk to the hospital .As soon as I started walking the tears started coming out. You can't even control it, you are just walking and all of the sudden (crying). I am walking, I am trying to hold it back(crying) there I am , walking to the hospital like a mad man. I get there , my brother is standing there at the emergency section. I see him outside, he is just standing like nothing happened, looking around. I am like, Joseph what happened? He's like, " Mom got shot, she's inside" . I am like, are you okay? He's like"Mom was shot, not me." No, that's not what I am saying you idiot . whatever, I am coming back. so I run inside ... My mom is in the prep area, all the doctors are standing around her there's blood everywhere, I am looking at the doctors and just by the way doctors are not as good looking as they are on those T.v shows. No, like they set the bar really high. course I was shocked because I ran in and was like what the hell (confused). Sorry. that was inappropriate, what's happening here guys? "sir, you need to leave." I said I was sorry, what's happening? "No sir , you can't be here please leave " I am like whatever, okay. so I go outside, the nurse come to me and she is like."Mr. Maphanga?" I said yes." okay Mr. Maphanga, we have your mom stabilized right now and we are gonna have to start thinking about surgery. She has been shot in the head and she has shot in the low bud region... so this is a very serious thing." I am like, yes it is.so what's happening? "well , we just found out that she doesn't have medical aid." I said , what? " yeah she's doesn't have medical aid."
No my mom always had medical aid, always. But now it turns out she cancelled it a few years ago. I didn't know this, she cancelled it because she never gets sick. You know those people. I never get sick, I never get sick Ashton. I never get sick, I don't know why I have this. I never get sick. Yes but you didn't think of bullets. Now she's in the hospital, no medical aid. so I said to the nurse, what does this mean? She says " well it means we are going to have to put her back in the ambulance and send her to the public hospital." I said, but she is bleeding now, you can't send her. she said, " I am sorry sir but that is all we can do , she has to go to public hospital." now I am panicking, a public hospital? Normally a good place to go, normally you know. but now what's happening is just mis- administration of funds. so now I am stressed I don't know way forward, then finally I just said to the Doc let it be, seens there's nothing I can do. so the ambulance arrived. but the amazing thing happened when we arrived at the public hospital. It turns out my mother was not that badly hurt. It was a miracle really, the ass bullets didn't do much damage because my family is gifted. The head bullets didn't hit anything vital. Other than the head, obviously. but it missed her spinal cord , missed the nerves, didn't touch the brain.went right through, missed the eye. hit the eye socket and deflated and all it did was cut a piece of her nostril off ... just one side and the bullet went out clean. which means she didn't have to go in for intensive surgery and her recovery was two weeks. which was fantastic because at the public hospital they manage to help her seens at the private hospital they couldn't because the only thing they we're thinking about it was money. without money they couldn't help my mom, I am so grateful that at public hospital they saved my mom's life. And to show you what a crazy family we have. my mom is in a recovery ward, she has these tubes in her and everything and an I.V . My brother is in the corner, bored out of his mind and my grandmother is in the other corner reading the bible. I am holding my mom's hand and I am crying still crying, this is a week later. I am still crying.(crying) I have been crying the whole week but I have also been using this time to cry for other things in my life. No, because as a man you need to know when to cry. You loop it all together and you just cry one time, like we cry in bulk, you got to understand. You don't just cry one,one, one, no.cry in bulk. now I'm crying for everything (crying). my mom looks at me and she goes like "Shh Ashton, don't cry my baby" I said no mom I got to cry, you where shot in the head. she says "no, look on the bright side." I said, what bright side? she said, "at least now because of my nose... you are officially the best looking person in the family." I was like, by default.(crying)then boom were all happy after all.
© Ashton Maphanga