It's been four months since Zoleka Mandela buried her grandmother, Ma Winnie and the nation bid farewell to a political stalwart, but the loss will be felt by her loved ones for a lifetime.
Zoleka who has been grappling to come to terms with Ma Winnie's death stumbled upon a picture of the two of them cooking Sunday lunch together. The picture was taken in their Soweto home.
Zoleka revealed that her grandmother who she fondly called her 'day one' had passed down all her recipes and that they were on recipe book.
"I smiled when I came across it then I just felt my soul hurt and long for her. You guys don't know this but we were working on a cookbook together, something more light hearted in comparison to our (individually) published books - When Hope Whispers and 491 Days."
Zoleka said that Ma Winnie was still going to teach her how to make sour milk from scratch like she used to make for Madiba.
She added that it was difficult to deal with the pain of losing Ma Winnie but that it helped to be at their family home in Soweto.
"It's so hard to stay in bed and cry all day today with the kids home with me and on holiday, but it helps to keep busy around the house so it pains me less. It helps to be in Soweto even if I feel so lonely without her, even if I still always expect to find her sitting in her chair when I reach her bedroom or when I realize that I'm battling to sleep on her side of the bed because I can''t quite feel her."
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