Then it all fell apart......

The SAS President Kruger was a frigate of the South African Navy. She sank in 1982 with the loss of 16 lives after colliding with her replenishment ship, the SAS Tafelberg, in the South Atlantic.On 18 February 1982, while under the command of Captain de Lange, the President Kruger sank 78 nautical miles (144 km) south west of Cape Point after colliding with SAS Tafelberg in the early hours of the morning.

On 18th February 1982 at 4am in the morning aparently I woke up and was sobbing my heart out as though my heart had been broken. I was only 5 weeks old and had been sleeping through the night from 3 weeks old, so it was very strange to my mother that I would be sobbing and could not be comforted.....

A few hours later my sudden sobbing was all explained when my mother was informed that my dad was one of the 16 men who went down on the ship.... when he died at 4am my little heart knew that my dad had died and that my life would be changed forever....

The one man who wanted me and who loved me and would have protected me from the world was gone forever..... I never knew him but when I look at how much my husband loves our daughter I know the love and affection that I lost and was deprived of..... he was so young only 25 years old..... my mother was never the same again and the Smith family happiness was gone for ever....

 The Navy memorial in honour of my dad and the 15 other men that died

My poor mother....

My widowed mother of 3 children & me in my Grandpa's arms.... 

with my dad's family