Final Goodbye? Never

 

As I send this post out on the internet, it has been exactly one year since I started making phone calls early that Saturday morning to tell friends and loved ones that my beautiful daughter had taken her own life the night before.

          After the police had left our house, after midnight, Hubby and I called our son to let him know. Then we laid in bed, thinking that if we could just fall asleep, we would wake up to what we wanted – that it had all been a nightmare. Instead, I finally got up, grabbed a notepad and made a list of all the people we had to call once we thought they would be awake. (My Kenyan travel buddy was the first one, as I knew she’d be up early and she had gone to Kenya with Val twice over the years.)

          Am I done mourning? Have I even started? How am I coping today? And how will I cope for the rest of my life, not being able to read a new text from her, or call her up, or plan an adventure with her?

          It was probably the day after that first one, when my son and I decided we should return to Kenya this summer to spread her ashes.

          And so we did.

          In several places, thanks to our wonderful friends who live there and loved Val as much as the rest of us.

Other anniversaries? While I was there, I passed the twentieth anniversary of our first trip to Kenya. And the eleventh month anniversary of Val leaving us. And today is three weeks since we arrived back home.

I’m trying to fill the hole that is left in my heart. Not with things that aren’t Val, but with happy, better times with my daughter. She’ll always be with me, and I want that to be in a place in my heart that is full of laughter, and rescued dogs, and waterfalls, and Kenyan chapati, and children’s hands, and all sorts of love.

May God bless you today and every day. And thank you to everyone for your support and love over the past year.

For the Birds - Game Drive #3 – Kenya 2026, blog post #7

If you read to the end of Wednesday’s post, you may remember that I promised to share bird pictures today. I hope you aren’t disappointed. We saw sooo many different birds, but sadly, I don’t know the names of many of them. 

Several of my travel partners were big bird watchers, so as we saw our feathered friends, they were usually able to figure out what their names were. I am sure one of those friends will chime in if I got one of these names wrong.  

Egyptian Geese 

 

One Pelican

Many pelicans. 

Certainly some sort of Guineafowl, probably the helmeted one. 

African Fish Eagle 

Two African Spoonbill. Not sure who their little friend is between them is. 

Squacco Heron

African Sacred Ibis

Pied Kingfisher

Goliath Heron

Hamerkop, which translates to Hammer Head, which makes sense.

Superb Starling

Marabou Stork, seen at our safari camp next to the Mara. They are considered one of the five ugliest animals in Africa. Do you remember the others that I already shared on my blog? 

This Marabou was at the Masa Mara Game Park and here he is showing off just how ugly he can be. 

The Lilac-breasted Roller, Kenya's national bird. This is also the only picture which I borrowed from a friend. I took the exact same picture of this little guy, but I cannot find it among my 1,200 pictures! Thanks, Denise

Game Drive Number 2 – Kenya 2026, blog post #6

On Sunday’s post, I shared pictures from our late afternoon game drive at Amboseli National Park.

During the short two-hours we were there, we saw some remarkable herds of elephants, among other animals. Little did we know what was waiting for us the next day, when we would spend close to nine hours viewing a huge variety of birds and mammals.

And more wildebeest

More Thomson Gazelle

A big family of monkeys, picking bugs off each other

The hyena carrying some piece of food.

I don't know if he dropped his food to wash it or if he just wanted a drink. 

The king of the savanah, sleeping off his lunch

Which is why those zebra aren't worried about them.

"Pumba", the adorable warthog. 

Along with the hyena and wildebeest, the warthog is on the list of the five ugliest animals. I don't know why, I don't see it. 

The hippo with a little friend. 

Lots of zebras. They have such round butts. 

I'm pretty sure this is an Oryx

The Cape Buffalo, another one of the Big Five animals, along with the elephant and lion. Did  I get to see the other two? 

Also, because we saw sooo many birds, I might share them on Friday. 

Game Drive Number 1 – Kenya 2026, blog post #5

 We helped out at the school Monday all day and Tuesday just in the morning. My son and daughter-in-law arrived at the volunteer house around midnight Monday night / Tuesday morning. We headed back to the house from the school for lunch, hoping that they had slept long enough and were up and about. Only my son was, but that was okay; we didn’t have anything else to do that afternoon, except to sit around. And go out to eat at the Wattle House in Kikuyu, with our friend and her four kids. 

Wednesday morning, however, was another story. We weren’t out the door super early – I have no idea what time it was – but we were on our way to Amboseli National Park, so couldn’t dilly-dally all morning.

We arrived at Riverine Camp around 12:30 – I told you about that little camp last time. We settled in, had lunch, took a walk around, then laid around until 3ish, when we headed out for the late afternoon game drive.

Our animal count included: 

Male Ostrich

Vultures. I counted over 50 of them in this tree. 

Grant's Gazelle

Thomson's Gazelle

Grey Crowned Crane

Maasai Giraffe

Zebra

Hippo in a pond of water

Wildebeest. Along with the vulture, these animals are on the list of Five Ugliest Animals seen on Safari. We saw the other three another day, but can you guess what they are? 

Speaking of groups of Five. That first afternoon at Amboseli we only saw one of the Classic Big Five, the animals which at one time were the big game hunters prize and which are still the animals tourists on safari most want to see.  

Amboseli National Park is not only known for its large herds of elephants, but also for the Big Tuskers – male elephants who have lived long enough to have long, impressive tusks, sometimes reaching down to the ground. We were not fortunate enough to see one of them (there are less than a few dozen alive across Kenya), but the family which we did see was impressive enough. 

If you have the time, do some research on elephants. They are amazing creatures, very intelligent and caring towards other family members. We need to protect them and let them grow old. There are still poachers out there, killing elephants for their tusks. It makes me sick. In Amboseli, they are protected as much as possible, but the elephants are free to roam, leading to confrontations with humans. 

WWF is probably the most well-known conservation nonprofit, but you can sure look up others on-line. And I'll tell you about the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust on another post.