A Cape Flats tot is making a name for herself as fans lined up over the weekend for a meet and greet at the launch of her first book.
After suffering a traumatic birth and a tear in her tummy due to her mother’s drug addiction, two-year-old Lulu is rewriting her life story.
The bubbly toddler, originally from Uitsig, has over 1000 followers on social media thanks to her parents Tracey and Rodney Brown from Mitchells Plain, who helped nurse her back to good health after the courts removed her from her mother’s care.
As a newborn, Lulu was placed at Hannah’s Place of Safety innie Plain after she was treated for pyloric stenosis, which affects the stomach and small intestine of newborns.
Speaking at the launch, Tracey said she will never forget the day the skinny baby was brought to the centre needing extra care as she was unable to feed and needed surgery.
Tracey, who works as a supervisor at the home, told her husband, Rodney, about Lulu and the couple fell in love with the little girl.
They applied to foster her, but were left in tears five months later when her biological family was given custody of Lulu.
Together with her great aunty, Shirley Mixkie, the couple then approached the Department of Social Development and applied to co-parent Lulu.
"What a beautiful morning. Thank you all."
Posted by Lulu on Saturday, August 1, 2020
“We were in tears. She had crept into everyone’s hearts and we knew we had to find a way to keep her around.
“Schedules and rosters were drawn up so that she could still be in contact with her biological family, but from the start Lulu was a fighter and we wanted to give her a better chance in life,” says “dada” Rodney.
Since then Lulu has captured the hearts of Cape Flats mense as her dada shares videos and pictures of her kaskenades on her Facebook page, from playing dominoes and dancing to covering herself from head to toe with baby powder.
The book is called Lulu: An Adventure Fun Series, and was published with the help of Tshienda Publications.
Rodney says while the first print run was just 200 copies, they hope to extend sales into local bookstores.
“Each book costs R100 and comes with a Lulu face mask and key ring. With the funds raised we are looking at printing more books and some will go towards a trust fund for Lulu,” he says.
Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Miss Lulu.
Posted by Rodney Scara Brown on Saturday, July 25, 2020
“We believe in sharing her adventures to inspire hope and to encourage other parents who may want another child to look at fostering or adopting and rewriting some of these tragic stories.”
To order a book, email [email protected].