I will sleep peacefully after seeing my father

Thirty three year old Sharon saw her father for the last time when aged 9

Benson Ntlemo

Sharon, 33 was beside herself with joy today when she saw her father Gezani Piet Chauke Celela whom she last saw at the age of 9.

Sharon who is from Soekmekaar in Limpopo met her father in a joyful reunion at Nkovani Village in the Collins Chabane Local Municipality.
This reunion has the word drama written all over it.

“I will sleep peacefully today and all thanks God that I found my father,” said Sharon at Nkovani today. Celela who got Sharon after a union with her mother was working for Telkom.

But when he was transferred to Musina he lost contact with her mother.
“When I came back to the area I found the mother of my girl was said to be working in Johannesburg and had left the girl with her mother. Later when I came back I found that the granny had relocated somewhere with my daughter and I could not trace her,” said Celela.

He later came back to Malamulele and retired from Telkom ten years ago.
At the same time Sharon had a hellish life.
“My mother got married and the step father did not want me and I was raised by my grandmother,” she said.
Her grandmother later died and had to stay with her mother while the step father made her life miserable.

“At one time he prevented me from writing my examinations,” she said of the man who is now separated from her own mother.
She had asked her mother about the identity of her father and at first she told her a wrong name fearing as she was suffering she would trace him and go to him.

But recently her mother told her father’s name was Gezani Piet Chauke Celela and was working for Telkom in Louis Trichardt.
Then when she went to Telkom in Thohoyandou they gave the name of Telkom contractor Edward Chauke who is incidentally in the same Chauke lineage as her father.

Edward Chauke facilitated the father’s reunion with his daughter.
Meanwhile Celela’s wife welcomed her stepdaughter with open arms. It was a celebration at the Celela family. And Sharon met her real family for the first time at the age of 33.

Said Celela: “This is the work of God. We must all pray.”
Said Sheron: “I have started a hair salon and recently my business was not doing well. At church the prophets said I should trace my father who is worried about me. Now I believe everything will boom.”

She said she used to pray that she should find her father.

Celela said he was always worried about the whereabouts of his daughter. “Each time I prayed I did not forget to mention her name. I thought perhaps she is eating from dustbins. Now I am happy.”

Sharon came with her husband and three children and also accompanied by two family members. They all agreed to forget the past and start a new chapter.

She had been looking for her father for the last 24 years.