This is my daughter, Natasja, at the age of 9. 
She was born on 22 October 1981. She passed away on 17 May 2001,
19 years old. She was diagnosed with Williams Syndrome at the age of 3 when I was
expecting my son, Dayne, now 16. I also have a daughter, Megan, 13 years old. They are
both healthy, normal children. We all miss Tash terribly, she was so special, our angel.
Although we knew that she was on loan to us, we were not ready to say goodbye. She died
from multiple organ failure, within 22 hours of being admitted. Her heart stopped 9 times,
she went into a coma and never came out of it. She never had it easy, she was mentally
retarded, could not attend school, we tried. She had a very complex heart problem, was
never strong enough for surgery. She had several eye operations, was very squint. Three
years ago she was very sick, we did not think she would pull through, she had absesses on
the brain, which they drained three times. She was in hospital for three months, suffered
terribly, but recovered remarkably. It was the return of these absesses that caused her
quick death. She was saved the terrible suffering. Something I noticed over the last few
months was that it seemed as if she was ageing very quickly, she shrunk, her skin looked
old, her hearing was bad, she ate very little, she was always tired. She loved music, had
an excellent memory, knew all music and artists. The other love was her bucket of beads,
all colours, shapes and sizes. She played with it for hours on end. She loved her family,
had many friends, everybody loved her because of her lovely nature. She asked for nothing
in life but love, food, friends, music and a Cadbury's Flake. I live in Centurion,
Pretoria, South Africa.
Rest in peace, our angel.
Feel free to contact me: karin@futuregroup.co.za
Thank you for this wonderful site. It it such a pity that we never had this technology when Natasja was born, when I had so many questions. Here in South Africa very few people, even in the medical profession, knows anything about WS.
Karin Nolan
