Goodnight Doll

This book is a tribute to two ordinary people and their journey with cancer through a love that was anything but ordinary. Neither of them are famous nor feature in the social pages of magazines or newspapers. Yet their lives together were an inspiration to anyone who had the privilege of bearing witness to the exceptional bond that sustained them through their six-year ordeal with terminal prostate cancer. The two people are my gay brother, Eugene, and his partner of 23 years, Pieter. This tribute celebrates the passion my brother had for his profession as a nurse, his passion for art and music and, above all, the passion with which he lived and loved. We are known and remembered through the stories people tell about us. These stories are passed down from generation to generation. As Eugene and Pieter did not have any children to pass on their stories to future generations, this book is my gift to them to ensure their story is captured and remembered. This book is therefore written as a tribute to both Eugene and Pieter, their ordeal with terminal prostate cancer and the additional challenges they faced as a gay couple in a complex, conservative society in South Africa.