1997

1997: the year of the Ox, was not supposed to be the year of my birth but as my mom puts it, I had places to go and people to see.

I was born in the November two month’s premature, surprising friends and family members almost as much as Hale Bopp-the comet that startled the world with its close encounter to Earth.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his Chechen counterpart Aslan Maskhadov signed a peace agreement after 400 years of conflict, and in the Republic of Ireland divorce became legal.  In April, the Red River of the North severely flooded the whole of Northern Minnesota causing US$2 billion worth of damage, JK Rowling published her first novel in the famous Harry Potter series and George Clooney scooped the prize for ‘Sexiest Man Alive’.

Numerous women including my grandmother, bawled their eyes out in cinemas across the globe as Jack died from hypothermia while trying to protect Rose in Titanic. My dad however, was winding down with a beer that only cost him R10 whilst watching Brazil slash Australia in the final of the FIFA Confederations Cup.

 Di reported dead with Dodi in Paris car crash, and Mother Teresa, the Angel of Calcutta dies at the age of 87 filled the papers within the same week leaving a melancholic atmosphere in many households including my own, and Eric Clapton’s song Change the World won song of the year at the Grammy Awards.

 The Kyoto Protocol was adopted by members of the United Nations in order to try and combat climate change while Nkosi sikelel iAfrika, South Africa’s new national anthem echoed its way across the country’s democratic soil, building the feeling of unity among its citizens.

In the December, my mom and I were finally allowed to leave the hospital and as we made our way home with my dad in his green Ford Aspire, Lou Reed’s Perfect Day began to play on the radio, later hitting the top of the UK charts, and what a perfect day it was for two new parents to be heading home with their baby girl.