The news of her untimely and premature passing did not reach me through the conventional channel. As it is becoming a norm, I was left a little 'paralysed' and with a sense of disbelief to discover accidentally through the notorious messenger of doom - the social media - that my student and my doctor is no more. A sad way to find out about the loss of someone so close and so dear. Such precious news in my old conservative world would have been delivered differently. Not that it would have made any difference in terms of the excruciating pain one is feeling but that was our way of doing things. I had no one to console me and quickly remembering I am 57, I had to rally myself and call her closest classmate at Lotsane Senior Secondary School that is also a fellow 'labourer' in the medical trenches, Dr Tumisang Masheleng, to deny the news. I was not ready for a confirmation note. All I wanted to hear was that the social media was at it again- spreading lies. My wish was shattered when Dr Masheleng said that he had also just received the news and was still processing, trying to come to terms with the shocking development.
Reality then crept in. Taking a bit of a tour of her life course and education journey, I must say her character was clean, unblemished and beyond reproach. It was the discipline that helped her blossom into what she became later in life. She was a phenomenal young lady, an accomplished medical doctor who gave 110% to everything she did. She completed her Cambridge studies at Lotsane with distinction in 1997, having joined the school in 1995. Teachers who handled Lizzy, especially at Lotsane, would unanimously tell that as a student she was a ready-made, polished and teachable material. A student who made teachers want to come to work the next day. She made the usually laborious and daunting teaching load of a teacher relatively easy and manageable. In spite of her razor sharp intellectual mind, she never demonstrated any tinge of intellectual arrogance.
