KWAZULU-NATAL. – Alexis-Jayde van Wyk (19), a young chef student from Pietermaritzburg, was killed in a head-on collision. She celebrated her nineteenth birthday on 15 October. Her boyfriend, Aiden, was seriously injured in the accident and is fighting for his life in hospital.
According to her mother, Celeste van Wyk, Alexis-Jayde, who was known as Alley, was on her way home with Aiden on Saturday after completing her final practical high teaexamination at the Jackie Cameron School of Food & Wine. She had to be cut from the wreckage with rescue equipment and according to her mother died from her injuries at the scene.
Celeste posted on a fundraising profile that was set up to help them with a memorial service for Alley, sharing how difficult it is to lose her daughter, that her death has changed the family's life forever. She wrote that she will greatly miss her child's messages, phone calls, cuddles and kisses. She also shared how proud she was of Alexis-Jayde's progress with her chef training.
The Jackie Cameron School of Food & Wine also paid tribute to Alexis-Jayde and described her as a student with a special personality, a love of life and great potential. Her high teaexamination was inspired by the theme of her beloved childhood character, Winnie the Pooh. The chef school said she had a promising future in the food industry and dreamed of one day working as a chef on a sailing yacht travelling around the world.
Her death leaves her family and the chef school community in mourning.
This article is an automatic English translation of a Nuusflits article originally published in Afrikaans. Read the Afrikaans original.
