The Sight Still Haunts Me

This Randfontein pastor has been reunited with the family he saved from drowning nearly three decades ago

- Jana Van Der Merwe

He didn't expect to see the woman and her three kids again but he never forgot them – how could he erase that dramatic day from his memory?

Yet it would take almost 33 years and a serious health condition before Francis Cloete took action to find the answers he was looking for.

Francis (49), a pastor and founder of a mission outreach program, recently posted a cutting of a community newspaper article on Facebook that told the story of what had happened back in November 1988.

“I’m the boy mentioned in the article who saved the lives of this woman and her children,” he wrote. “I just want to know how they’re doing. If anyone has any information on the family, please contact me.”

Just three days later, Francis received a message from one of the boys he’d rescued who put him in touch with his mom, Estelle Joubert.

Estelle is still astounded when YOU contacts her shortly afterward. “Over the years I thought of that boy often,” she says. “But I never knew his name or where to find him.”