Year in Review: Simz Ngema was heartbroken but heroic in the face of tragedy

"Nothing prepares you for one day to be a 27-year-old widow. That all the dreams you've dreamt of will be taken away from you," Simphiwe Ngema told mourners at the memorial service for her late husband, sending goosebumps across the flesh of many in the audience and bringing others to tears.

It was a moment that perfectly encapsulated Simphiwe, or Simz as she was more popularly known, in the days and weeks following the death of her husband Dumi Masilela in an attempted hijacking in Tembisa on August 3. She was heartbroken but still strong enough to stand and speak when it was never expected of her.

Like she told mourners, she did it for Dumi.

Simphiwe received a phone call from Dumi's friend on that tragic evening in August and told to meet them at the hospital. Dumi had been shot but was able to drive halfway to the hospital to get help.

She met Dumi and his friend there and spent several precious moments with him, holding him, before he was taken into theatre to be operated on. Friends told TshisaLIVE that she did not know those moments would be their last together.

"Simphiwe arrived at the hospital and Dumi was conscious enough to speak to her. She embraced him. He kept telling doctors he was in pain so Simphiwe did her best to comfort him and keep his spirits up. They spent time together while doctors evaluated him. For her, it wasn't a final goodbye. She didn't say goodbye because she didn't think he would die. She thought he would recover," Masilela family spokesperson and friend Mpumi Phillips said.

In the days that followed, Simz went into mourning and only emerged at Dumi's memorial service and funeral, each time giving a small speech and leading mourners in song.

The couple had only a few months earlier tied the knot in a traditional wedding ceremony, something Simz would reflect on in the weeks that followed Dumi's death.

Slowly, she returned to social media but this time only to pay tribute to her late husband and to share memories of their time together.

Even after Dumi was given a final send-off by Rhythm City, the production he worked at when he died, Simz took to Instagram to share a video of herself singing along to a song he had written.

It has been just over four months since Dumi's death but Simz has done her best to keep his memory alive, all the while nursing a broken heart at the death of her "eternal crush".