feel-good
SINGLE DAD,
When the Covid-19 pandemic plunged South Africa into lockdown, a Cape Town creative director received a phone call that would change everything: he was about to become a father – to twins.
By Tali Feinberg
In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world felt dystopian as life was locked down and everything ordinary went up in smoke. It was in that crazy context that Cape Town creative director Mike Ipp got a surreal phone call that fit right in with that upside-down world – a moment that would take him into an alternate universe.
Straightforward and a perfectionist, Mike was not someone who did anything unpredictable. That is, until he was told on that call that he was unexpectedly going to be a dad. The mom was not ready, and did not have the capacity to raise a family.
Mike responded in a way he never expected: he instantly committed to raising the child alone. Shortly afterwards he found out she was carrying twins – a boy and a girl. For Mike, this was just one more unbelievable event at a time when absolutely anything could happen.
“ Finding out I was going to be a dad was actually more of a shock than finding out it was twins,” he laughs.“ By that point, nothing could shock me. If she had phoned the next week to say it was triplets, I wouldn’ t have been surprised. On every level, the story didn’ t make sense, but nothing made sense in 2020, so it was very fitting.” He stuck with his commitment, even knowing he would literally be outnumbered.
With legalities in place, Mike flew to Johannesburg to see his twins born, three weeks earlier than expected. Even though they were born premature, the twins were surprisingly big and healthy.“ They leapfrogged over the incubators and headed straight into the nursery!” Two weeks later, Mike brought his newborns back to the Mother City, where they have lived ever since.
Early learnings …
The infant days were a whirlwind, especially because the pandemic meant
78 www. babysandbeyond. co. za