Most of the headlines yesterday were dominated by Nelson Mandela‘s death, but we’ve heard little from his close friends and family. However, reports started coming in about Mandela’s family meeting at his Johannesburg home in South Africa. Mandela was reportedly putting up a tough fight from his deathbed for the last two days, and most of his family had flown in to be at his bedside.
Previously, he spent three months at the hospital with a lung infection, and he had some close calls prior to this. Alas, there’s only so long you can hang on when you’re at that stage and when you’ve fought for so long.
The BBC reports that an ‘unusually large’ family gathering was taking place this evening. Um, duh. Nelson Mandela just died, I think that’s a reason the gathering was so large. The report also claims that a large number of government officials stopped by as the news spread and the evening wore on.
Although Mandela’s home in Johannesburg is a mansion in comparison to his neighbors’ homes, reports claim that he will be buried alongside his ancestors and family members. One of Mandela’s oldest surviving family members, Kekana Geledwane, spoke to the news about Mandela, saying, “Nobody could do what Mandela has done for the world. Madiba was friends with my father and wanted to build his house next to our old home. There is no one greater in the world.”
Nobody in Mandela’s community and even in South Africa can quite believe their Madiba is dead, and a sense of sadness is prevalent across their nation today. But they should find some solace in the fact that Mandela’s legacy will live on forever.