Marcelle on baby no 5
2004-05-25 11:07
Cape Town - In a Table View coffee bar Marcelle Adams, 34, with a toddler on her lap and a baby on the way, could be any mom in awe about the new life growing in her. But in her case things are too complicated for that.
The father of her unborn child is German businessman Fritz Cherdron, 55, who's also Anna's dad. They met almost four years ago in Cape Town where Fritz, a stunt pilot and 1995 European champion, keeps two planes and his own pilot.
The attraction was immediate and they still dream about a future together. Yet Marcelle and Anna still share a semi-detached house with former minister Piet Koornhof, 78, their six-year-old twins Daniel and Samuel and Maria, 11.
Marcelle has been at Piet's side for 12 years but they've never married. The new man in her life still cares for his wife at their home. Illness has trapped her in a wheelchair and she's no longer aware of what's going on around her.
As Marcelle says: "I'm the kind of person who attracts difficult situations..."
The baby, due in September, wasn't planned. When Fritz came to visit at the beginning of the year Marcelle felt she wouldn't fall pregnant again so soon after Anna's birth.
A few weeks later she began to suspect she'd been wrong. "I was in denial. I wasn't against having another baby but the timing wasn't right."
Nothing came of Marcelle's plans to move to the town of Bad Endorf in Bavaria, Germany, where Fritz lives. Piet was against his kids leaving the country and she wouldn't go without them.
'Something wasn't right'
Instead of the twins starting their school careers in Germany, as Marcelle had planned, she enrolled them at the Bloubergrant school their older sister Maria also attends. Until last year she attended a private school in Cape Town.
In the meantime Fritz was impatiently awaiting her arrival in Germany. In the past he's visited every two months but this year he has no one to look after his carpet business. His daughter Betina, 24, who always stood in for him, now works in Switzerland.
While Marcelle was trying to decide what to do she found she could no longer ignore the signs of her pregnancy. Over the phone she told Fritz something wasn't right and she felt constantly nauseous.
She did a home pregnancy test. "It was positive but I thought it couldn't be."
She immediately called Fritz. "He was laughing; laughing loudly. Fritz always says he wants eight children." Only when another test a week later also proved positive did Marcelle accept the truth.
She told Piet soon afterwards. "He was very calm. He loves the children and doesn't want me to leave. He's happy to have children around him."
He loves Anna as if she were his own. "It's unconditional love. He's extremely fond of Annie."
He'll love the new baby just as much, Piet says later. "I wish I was still a politician so I could tell people how nice it is for a man who's almost 80 to still have babies in the house..."
Read this week's YOU for the full story.