It is with a heavy heart and tears streaming down my face that I write this post. It has taken me over a week to try to form the words, but I just don't know how to articulate everything in my heart. I have cried every day and the tears are not finished yet.
Last week Saturday - 12 October - my friend Glen Dell crashed at an air show in Secunda and died later that day.
Words cannot explain my heartbreak.
I first met Glen in 2005 and thought he was so sexy (for an older man)
His striking blue eyes were kind and wicked all at the same time.
But it was his kindness, his gentle nature and his humility that made him so extremely special.
We bonded over our love of animals and red wine. Glen took me for my first plane ride in June as a birthday present and I was lucky enough to be treated to another ride a few years later.
We sat over dinners and lunches and discussed marriage and children. Glen made me feel comfortable with my decision not to get married in my 20's like everybody around me.
He made me feel sexy, he respected my opinion enough to ask advice on important things and he helped me to realise the strength within myself.
He changed my life. He helped me enjoy the adventurous side of myself. He helped me realise my self-worth.
I remember the day he amazed me & surprised my friends who were flying to PE and he happened to be the captain of that flight. He called them both to the cockpit!
Another time he flew directly over my house in Centurion to cheer me up - even though he was not even supposed to be in that air-space!
He made a friend of mine's dream come true by taking him up in the air and teaching him some aerobatic moves because it was important to me.
This man was exceptionally kind and giving. If you read his Facebook wall, the messages streaming in show you the calibre of person he was. He was only 51.
I was going to get married under the gazebo at his house in his backyard.
What bothers me even more: I could not stop thinking about him on Friday. Glen kept popping into my thoughts. I thought, "I'll message him when I am in Mauritius and catch up"
He died the day I landed in Mauritius and I never got to speak to him again.
You'd think after what happened with John Sinclair in 2006 (kept thinking about him and he died the next day) that I would have learnt my lesson!
Emergency services took 8 minutes to get him out of his burning plane after dawdling around and being so ill-prepared that he was only removed from the wreckage 20 minutes later.
He died not from any broken bones, but from the extent of his burns.
What a senseless way to die! If he had died from injuries relating to the actual crash I would have understood, but when the people we rely on to save our life are the indirect cause - it makes me sick.
RIP Glen - I cannot tell you how much I will miss you.
