Zoleka Mandela returns to Instagram four months after Winnie's funeral
Zoleka Mandela broke her silence on Instagram by posting a moving slide-show and two tribute posts about her grandmother Winnie Madikizela-Mandela over the weekend.
This was the first time, Zoleka posted on her Instagram account @zolekamandela, since her grandmother was laid to rest on April 14th at the Fourways Memorial Park.
In one of the posts, accompanied by a picture of her in bed, spotting a bald head, Zoleka posted: "Saturday, 4th August 2018 marks the end of our mourning as a family ... I don't even know what that means exactly, how can anyone say how long you get over grief? I don't think I ever will."
She added: "I always knew that this loss would completely destroy me, I feel like I don't even recognize myself anymore. Nothing will ever be the same without the one I loved more than I loved myself."
Zoleka, 38, who was very close to Mama Winnie, had last posted on her Instagram page, which has more than 146 000 followers, on April 1st, a day before the struggle icon passed away at the Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg.
She also said she was "tired of being told that time heals" as she reflected on struggling to come to terms with her grandmother's death.
"What you would have wanted for me, that you're in a better place and tired of everyone around me pretending to have been the closest person to you. It only hurts more."
In another Instagram post, Zoleka shared some of her intimate moments with the mother of the nations, in a slide-show with the popular Laku tshoni langa playing in the background.
The slideshow includes selfies, video call snaps and pictures taken in the comfort of the struggle icon's home.
Zoleka also reflected on her last days with Mam Winnie: "I have the memories of the last few days constantly streaming through my mind. You've said more to me in your visits, their dreams but I wish you had said something to me on Friday when we attended your last Good Friday service together."
She continued: "Do you remember how pensive you were during the church service and how I kept checking if you were okay, you weren't sleeping through the entire service as you had started doing?"
She also wrote about the struggle icon's pain during her last moments. "You were always so tired and in pain. I wish I spent the night again when you asked me to that Saturday because you would have woken me up in the early hours of the morning when you felt the tightness in your chest".