Last Friday morning at around 6.25am, a grieving Durban North mother lit another row of fragrant candles in the lounge of her sea-facing apartment. The moment had arrived when she received news that the three-man expedition had summited the 5 895-metre challenge of reaching the Uhuru Peak of Mount Kilimanjaro and had planted the hiking stick of her first-born child who loved hiking up trails and climbing mountains.
“It was a very emotional moment, especially I was worried about the safety of the brave men who had volunteered to scale the mountain and honour my son and pay homage to his philanthropic work before he was mysteriously taken away from my life, and it was a relief that they had planted my son’s hiking stick and preserved his legacy on one of the highest mountain peaks – some closure at least,’’ said Navanayagee ‘’Babs’’ Pillay, 69, of Durban North.
Ever since the members of the Natural Bourne Trekkers-RSA, led by her cousin, retired sports master and geography teacher, Rajendran Pillay, 55, set off on the arduous mountain mission on the previous weekend, she has been monitoring their progress every day and night.
Daily and hourly, she took to social media platforms, Facebook and WhatsApp, expressing her love, deep sorrow and grief about the tragic loss of her high-flying son, 47-year-old Theasen Pillay, whose death on Friday, 7 May 2021, rocked the legal professional and social-media community.
She lost her son at a time when she was still grieving over the death of her husband, Dheenadayalan DG Pillay, a prominent architect and former IFP city councillor, who was credited for securing the property for the Al Falaah College and Islamic School in Springfield and the renaming of a street in Durban North honouring a legendary Muslim cleric to Soofie Saheb Drive at Riverside’s historic mosque, died of chronic diabetes in 2015, aged 69.
“Why my son? This is a mother’s worst nightmare,’’ she screamed at the shocking death news.
Her son was found with stab wounds to his chest and arm by his brother, Greshan Pillay, who runs the family-owned property design firm.
Theasen Pillay, then prominent as a litigation attorney with a debt-collecting agency, led a charmed life, but his successful career ended in a tragic death which the Durban North SAPS says the inquest into the death is yet to be finalised.
Since 2018, Pillay developed a passion for hiking up trails and climbing mountains, and teamed up with his mother’s cousin: “This was also a holy pilgrimage to the mountains in memory of a deeply religious and spiritual humanitarian who was defined by his philanthropic work for his charities and he ensured that the elderly people did not go to bed hungry.’’
“Before Covid-19, we had trekked up a volcanic mountain in Bali and the Mafadi peak on Drakensberg Mountain on the SA-Lesotho border. Quite remarkably, Theasen Pillay traversed through Mount Kailash in 2018 in India’s mountainous range that is famously renowned ever since the Hindu deity, Lord Shiva, retreated to a peaceful haven that has been described as the ‘centre of the globe where earth meets heaven’ and he achieved his feat on a solo expedition.’’
Texting from atop the world’s 12th highest and Africa’s tallest free-standing peak, Rajendran Pillay wrote on the WhatsApp group chat, Kilimanjaro, minutes later: ‘’I had personally dedicated this trek to my late cousin Theasen Pillay and took his hiking stick, trekking poles and photographs from the Mafadi trail trip to the summit.’’
During the their 40-minute window of opportunity at the summit, the expedition, 55-year-old Pillay, 57-year-old Sea Tides fresh produce dealer, Anesh Rampurtab, 57, and textile industry line floor manager, Spinks Subramoney Isipingo, aged 58, of Reservoir Hills, Durban, planted the flags and insignias of the three beneficiary organisations they had dedicated a fundraising charity climb on behalf of the cash-strapped Verulam Day and Frail Care Centre, Krsna Goshala, a sanctuary for neglected cows and the Buffelsdale Secondary School that serves pupils from the poorest community belts of Tongaat.
With the mountain mission and memorial ticked of their bucket wish list at R50 000 each, the intrepid trio is overwhelmed of having brought some relief, succour and strength for a mother’s undying, grief-stricken heart for her son who wanted to climb every mountain: Each morning, she lit candles for the hiker-climbers: “I hope they reach the mountain top and return home safely.’’
To ease her grief, she had joined the ‘“I Miss My Son in Heaven’’ Facebook group, a movement of mothers who have lost their sons tragically: “I was traumatised until a friend invited me to the support group. By communicating with other mums who have lost their children, has been helping me to heal slowly, but the pain never ends. Everything around me reminds me of my beautiful son. The only comfort is my beautiful dreams of him, he is always looking so happy in my dreams. In one dream, he is happily hugging me.’’
