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Tyrelle Wood has been through a lot in a very short space of time — she lost her home, her job and she nearly lost her life, but she hasn't given up on herself.
Tyrelle (25) from Joburg recently self-published a book of poetry, a memoir titled The Magic Within Her, inspired by her experiences.
“I feel like every person needs to know that there is light within them and this book is a reminder for me as well as them,” Tyrelle tells YOU.
“I wrote about healing, heartbreak, falling in love and many other lived-experiences.”
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In January her life was upended. She'd just arrived at work when she got a call telling her that her Benoni home was on fire.
She rushed home to find all her belongings had been destroyed, leaving her with only the clothes on her back.
The fire was later found to have been started by an electrical fault.
“I can’t describe how I was feeling. I was angry and sad, but mostly devastated. I started screaming ‘why me?’,” she recalls.
“I watched the fire turn everything I'd worked so hard for into ash.”
Not long after, in February, Tyrelle lost her job as a sales representative and her world crumbled.
“I was alone for the first time after the fire, after losing my job and getting a new apartment. Everything hit me at once and I was like, I can’t do this,” she says.
“I was in a dark place I felt like I could not free myself from.”
She attempted to take her own life, but a few hours after her attempted overdose, her aunt came to visit and found her.
She was rushed to Germiston Hospital, where she stayed for a week.
"My aunt and her son saved my life. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn’t be here.”
Two months later she was hit by a construction truck, "and I got hooked onto the front of the truck, which dragged me for about 50 metres".
Thankfully, she wasn't seriously injured, but the incident left her shaken.
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She got back to work on her poetry book, a project she'd started three years earlier, to refocus and to help herself heal.
Tyrelle knows it's a process which will take time, but she tells herself that everything will be okay, and in some respects, her life has started to improve.
She has a new job in the waste management industry and she is also studying architecture through Damelin Correspondence College.
“I want to give others hope by telling my story, by letting people know that there is life after hardships. Suicide does not have to be an option. It is going to get better."
