Visit to Kenya

Dorothy's final farewell

On the home stretch, we witnessed a road accident that had just happened;the dust from the skid was still thick in the air as we slowed down to take a closer look. We were just the three girls in the car and we were afraid of the mugging at the site of the accident. Karol wanted to stop and offer help, and as we slowed down to a stop, we saw people running from across the road  to the scene. Karol lamented that Muthuri had been robbed at the scene of the accident the day Dorothy passed, and we sped off as I tried desperately to call the police line. About two minutes later, we came by some traffic police and informed them of the accident afew minutes back the other way. Their reaction to the news was non comittal, but we guessed we had had done our part.

We arrived home to an impatient group of kids and we were so excited to see them. Lakeisha was home too, having been picked up from school that same day. She was inconsolable at times, but we got some of the gifts off the bags and had a couple of smiles from her. I had bought for her some clothes for the wintery cold around Mt. Kenya area, including Hannah Montana sleeping PJs.We stayed up till the wee hours of the AM and Karol drove home at some point in the night.

The next morning, we planned to go to the funeral Home (FH) to view and confirm( for myself that it was her)what she could wear. We also had to edit and print the eulogy booklet, pick up the flowers and the clothes that she would wear, take them to the FH…it was a busy day. We finally went to the FH at 4pm, and we confirmed that in fact it was Dorothy..lying lifeless and cold.How death ages you; she looked 10 years older!Through a flood of tears, we picked out her makeup, perfume and dress…very difficult exercise.When we left at 6pm-ish, she was dressed and made up almost as she would have appeared in life. Back to the traffic and karol’s commitments and the flowers ( very pretty white and green roses) and finally to the hair salon (bad hair do not worth the time and money) and then joined the friends holding the last meeting at the city restaurant.Home again to the kids and friends who had come to see mum and me and those that I missed seeing while away on the day’s errands.Thanks Aggie!

The day of the funeral, I stayed home in the morning with the kids as the rest of the family went to the FH for the final viewing of Dorothy. We get the kids ready and fed and had a pickup at about 7.30am to the pre-arranged meeting for transport arrangements.What a turnout! karol drove us to Meru with the my two special nieces and her friend.We missed the 2nd stopover due to a later start, but we got to Meru at the same time as the rest of the family and Nairobi friends.

The mass service was nice lead by an Italian priest who spoke both kimeru and Kiswahili witha funny accent. A lot of familiar faces from my childhood and a lot of emotion in the speeches from family and friends, especially aunt kagwiria (who had also led the cutting of the cake at their wedding 9 years previously).Dorothy was laid to rest in the garden to the right of the main house with crowd turnout that spoke of what a woman and friend she had been to many.We were so blessed to have known her and shocked to have lost her in her prime.

Dorothy had the biggest smile, so genuine and loving in her interactions. I loved her like my own sister, and I will miss the secrets that we shared, her chauffering me through Nairobi, the drinks and nyama and most of her mothering of her two children, not to mention our shared birthdays and memories of boarding school…

I know that we shall meet again, and until then I will miss you and do anything for your kids. Muthuri, just ask!

Dorothy's final farewell

Our flight to  Nairobi was uneventful and very long, a total travel time of over 26 hours. From Austin after dropping off Amani at daycare, the flight was delayed by two hours ( due to lack of enough passengers- my guess) and then on to Atlanta. The Atlanta airport is quite huge for those who are not familiar with it…it has a subway train service to transport passengers to different sections of the airport. I found this out after walking for quite a while and arriving at our (with Faith) gate out of breath. We then waited for an hour or two. the next flight took us to Amsterdam and from there to nairobi. Very exhausting! Through these two flights we were composed and in denial of the traggic loss of Dorothy, but on seeing Karol at the airport in Nairobi, I lost the composure. One very kind police officer (not too many left) escorted us to the car and took our phone number so that he could call later to verify we had arrived safely. we did not look very safe driving with tears flying!

On the way to the house, karol heard from Muthuri and they were still in the city post the meeting (funeral arrangements) and we met them at the restaurant. Muthuri and Lawrence and a whole group of friends that I had not seen in years.They had some drinks and we joined them for the wrap up of the meeting. Muthuri was still shocked from the loss of his wife and was blaming himself for things that in retrospect could probably have saved her….such as stopping to buy Sean(son) a snack as Dorothy had suggested, getting someone else to drive Keisha ( daughter) to the school as he had been fatigued from a safari the previous day,..maybe not avoiding the cyclist! How I wished he had struck the cyclist ( hold on…these area is known for cyclist who are ignorant of traffic rules and get on the road without warning) and possibly saved Dorothy’s life. But I told him that we do not get 5-sec peek into the future and there was no way he could have known that the stupid cyclist was going to swerve into his swerve.I could imagine how many times he had rerun that moment in his mind and how many different ways he coyld have prevented the accident. The SUV he was driving is very unstable and just the same week, a similar car killed the wife of Zimbabwean prime minister…i hate the car! I will continue with the narrative later, Amani just got up.