This biography is an attempt to expose what made Hansie the man he was, and to trace some of the tender lines of a remarkable physical, emotional and spiritual journey cut short. Covering his life story, it is important to know that Hansie's entire close family and circle of friends supported this title and their views and insights into his life form the basis of it. To insure a well-balanced story some of Hansie's harshest, most outspoken critics were also interviewed. Hansie, of course, was magnificent. But like all men and women, he was flawed, vexed by ambivalence. It is the marring of greatness that makes for such a compelling human story. Hansie's greatest battles were against himself. His story is therefore a universal story of the human condition, a story which may inspire reflection on one's own shortcomings, and on nature of sin, and forgiveness.