GOD'S PROTECTION.

This true story took place over a period of a few 
hours and depicts my miraculous escape from 
the hands of an unknown  intruder in 1965.

At the time I was almost thirty-six years old - my husband had abandoned me and my three sons aged fourteen, ten, and five while I was seven months  pregnant with my daughter.

Two months later on 1st May 1964 my father died suddenly from a heart aneurism, and two weeks later my daughter was born.

On the 8th January 1965, eight month later my forty-one year old husband and his fifteen year old lover died together in a suicide pact.

This however is a story for another time.

It is now 5th August 1965 - the time is after ten o'clock at night.  I am living with my two youngest children in a one bedroom flat in Mayfair, Johannesburg. The two older boys are away at boarding school.

This flat is built on a split level and has two entrance points. The front entrance exits into a very small garden and then directly out onto the pavement and the street.  To enter from the back entrance you have to pass my friend's flat on another street and climb a flight of stairs. So many years have passed that I do not remember her name, so for the sake of this story I will call her Paddy.

My next door neighbour's flat is in the same position as mine - theirs on the left and mine on
the right. The two identical gardens  are separated by a low wall.

At 10pm my children were asleep and I was putting curlers in my hair while listening to my favorite story on a small portable radio when I heard a knock on the back door.

I was very surprised as no one I knew ever visited me so late at night. On looking through the small window that gave me a view of the lobby, I saw Paddy standing there.

She appologised profusely for disturbing me  but as she was moving to Port Elizabeth the next day she wondered if she could purchase milk for her baby and keep it in my fridge as hers had already been disconnected for the move.

This arrangement would cause far less inconvenience in the morning.

I agreed, but now had to wait for her to return from the local cafe  before I could retire for the night.

When she returned with the milk I put it in my fridge after inviting her in for a cup of tea, which she declined, but instead of leaving she stood in the open doorway, chatting away about inconsequential things that really didn't interest me.

Meanwhile I was so tired, I could barely keep my eyes open. I just wished she would go so that I could get some sleep.

Little did I know that God was using her  to make me aware of the danger I and my children were in. If she hadn't prolonged her stay, we wouldn't have stood a chance.

Suddenly she stopped talking, her eyes grew big with fright and she whispered, "there's a strange bloke coming up the stairs. "  She used a different word for "bloke" - (a word that is no longer permitted in South Africa). I could see the naked fear on her face.

Strangely enough I wasn't afraid. I thought it was probably a friend of Percy - the African guy who lived on the top floor and maintained the building.

So to comfort her I said, "come in and I will make some tea, then you can go when he is no longer around."  She said  "No! I must go!" and hurried down the stairs. I watched her for a few seconds, but she never looked back.

Intrigued by her fright, I put my head out the door to see what this "bloke" looked like, to have given her such a scare.

I never got the chance to see him properly, all I know was that he was fairly light-skinned.  To my horror he was only a few feet away from my door. He was sidling silently against the wall in his "takkies"  and I knew his intention was to force me back into the flat.

Fortunately I have very quick reflexes and so I shut the door and locked it, but by the time I got the safety chain in place I was shaking like a leaf in a very strong wind.

Now I stood there, fully aware of the danger we were in.  I had no telephone, it was probably well after eleven o'clock, most people were already sleeping.  What to do?

I remembered that my late father had always told us to pretend to be asleep if we ever had a burglar in our room and never to turn the lights on.  But this was a  totally different scenario - this "bloke" had tried to force his way into my flat with me fully awake.

Also putting lights off would be a futile exercise as the landing lights outside produced enough light to make the inside of the flat "visible."  There was also nothing to stop him from putting the lights back on.

These were the thoughts rushing through my mind, when I realized that the  key to my front door was on the bunch in the back door.   If I needed to run I would  have to use the front door so I fetched the keys and as I put the key into the lock I heard a "click" sound from the vicinity of the kitchen.

Fearfully I told myself that I had imagined it, but then I heard the second "click."   Now I was really terrified, this second "click" was too distinct to ignore, so I forced myself to enter the kitchen.

The kitchen window was on the left side wall and actually consisted of four fanlight type windows. Only the left and right ones could open and neither of them were burglar proofed. Also because of their height there was no need for curtains.


The windows in my story were smaller than this.


They were high enough for my fridge to stand under them on the left hand side with a bit of space between the fridge and the windowsill.

In order to look out of these windows one  would require a small step ladder and then you would only be able to see the next door house's rooftop.


For an intruder to gain entrance through this window, he would have to climb the outside drainpipes and he would need some acrobatic work to get through as the window was so small. Before this incident took place I would never have thought it was possible.

The one advantage he would have was time. He could take as long as he wished without the risk of being discovered, because in the darkness of the night, high up on the drainpipe he would be completely invisible.

In hindsight I realized that the intruder had already tried this route (when I put the milk in the fridge I had noticed that the latch was off this window) and that was why he had so brazenly tried to force his way in through the door, he already knew how difficult it would be to gain entrance through the window.

Now I was facing the fridge in the semi dark kitchen and as I watched the window lifted outwards. I was unable to see the person behind the window.

A million thoughts rushed through my head.  Was this real?  Was I dreaming?  What can I do?  

If I took my daughter and ran, what about my son? If I took my son what about my daughter?

   I couldn't take one and leave the other and even if I had the time where would I put the one I took while rushing back for the other.  How does one dump a sleeping child  on the pavement, out in the cold in the middle of the night, and then run back to fetch another?  



It wasn't possible for me to take them both at the same time.  I would have to carry the baby, but my son slept so soundly I would never get him awake to run with me, and even if I could, I would most probably alert the intruder as to my intentions, which could have disasterous results. 

I also did not know whether I was dealing with only one intruder - there could have been others that I was unaware of.

On impulse I decided  that, in order to survive, I had to leave both children and get outside help as quickly as possible. So I left the flat in a frenzy, clad only in my pajamas. If I had been naked it would have made no difference, all such thoughts were beyond importance, climbed over the low wall and banged on my neighbour's door.

It seemed to take forever for him to open his door and when he did I could see that he did not believe my story.

He was also in his pajamas but I noticed that he had taken time to put his shoes on. I could see the doubt in his eyes. He was probably thinking that I, as a single mom was trying to entice him into my flat, but nevertheless he reluctantly followed me.

Once in my flat I was too terrified to go further than the passage and from there pointed out the location of the window. From this vantage point I watched as he walked nonchalantly through the door.

Within a split second his whole attitude changed. It was as though an electric shock had gone through him.  His whole body jerked, and then he sprang to life, grabbing an empty long stemmed glass bottle off a shelf he began swinging it around in defence mode and shouting in Afrikaans:

"What are you doing here?   What are you looking for?  What do you want?"

But all the while keeping his distance from "the bloke"

By this action he allowed "the bloke" the time needed to wiggle backwards out of the window, slide back down the drainpipes and vanish into the night.

I learned afterwards the he kept "the bloke" at a distance because if he got too close "the bloke" could have used him as leverage to propel himself into the flat.  He also said that he wished to avoid physical confrontation as he was unarmed and he did not know whether the intruder had a knife.

He then went home to phone the police and send his wife to comfort me.  After all the adrenaline rush I was now a shaking, shivering wreck. I had no control over my jawbone and couldn't stop the chattering of my teeth.

When the police arrived they asked for wire hangers and then wired the culprit windows shut.

Then after everyone had gone I sat in my flat, too afraid to go to sleep, in case the intruder came back.  The police had told us that when the bad guys wanted  to get in nothing could stop them.

I now wish to tell you about God's protection in this story;

When I got home from work that evening, I had intended to have an early night because I was so weary, but changed my mind as I had a few things I felt I needed to do.

Firstly, if I had gone to bed as intended I would have been sound asleep and would have woken up with the intruder in my bedroom, entirely at his mercy.

Secondly, Paddy from downstairs had alerted me to the danger I was in. The next day when she heard what had happened she said that she had climbed the stairs to my flat four times and turned  back three times because it was so late. But the fourth time she had felt "compelled"  to knock on my door. If she hadn't done so this story would have had a very different ending.

Thirdly my next door neighbour said that when I banged on their door, her husband was reading a book, if he had been asleep it would have been impossible to wake him.  Here again there would have been a bad and different ending.

Also on hindsight as already mentioned, I realised that the intruder had already made some progress to enter the flat. When I put the milk into the fridge I had noticed that the latch was off the left hand side window, which in itself was unusual as I never opened those windows.

This meant that he had most probably been on the drainpipes at the window before Paddy knocked on my door.

After listening to our conversation he knew he would have to wait until she returned with the milk and I was alone again.

When she took so long to leave he had grown impatient and climbed the stairs to see what was going on and when she left so suddenly he seized the opportunity to gain entrance through the door.

We serve a mighty God.  Did you see God's protecting hand in this?   Do you like me  believe in miracles?