South African media personality Khaya Dlanga recently took to social media to reflect on the passing of his beloved mother, marking the first anniversary of her death.

He wrote, “This past year feels both long and short. It’s been exactly one year today since a WhatsApp call shattered the quiet of an ordinary Monday. It lasted exactly 59 seconds. I remember every second of it—the voice on the other end, its finality. All I could say was, ‘Ok.’ Again and again. ‘Ok.’ ‘Ok.’ ‘Enkosi, sisi.’”

Dlanga described the day as otherwise unremarkable, blending into countless others until that call transformed it. “After the call, there was a silence so sharp it felt like it would cut through me. I was unnervingly calm—if not cold. Yes, cold. It was a coldness that moved all over my body with nowhere to go. I did not scream, cry, or shout,” he recalled.

 

 

 
He spoke of the profound loneliness that followed and shared a poignant memory of his mother’s love for sunflowers, which she always planted. “They follow the sun even on cloudy days. Perhaps she was showing us to keep our faces pointed toward the light, much like the message found scratched into a Nazi concentration camp: ‘I believe in the sun even when it isn’t shining. I believe in love even when I can’t feel it. I believe in God even when He is silent.’”

One year later, Dlanga admits that grief remains a heavy burden. “Some days I manage it, and some days I don’t. The cold is still here, but there are moments when the light filters through—like a sunflower turning its face toward the sun,” he concluded.