photo courtesy of GoFundMe
The father of a Kenyan health care worker tragically watched his daughter, Hellen Wendy Nyabuto, drown in a Canadian Motel swimming pool. She was live-streaming her outing on Facebook on August 18.
In the video, Nyabuto was first in the shallow end of the pool; after approaching the camera and giving a smile, she returned to the opposite end of the pool to go to the deep end. She was seen splashing around before she cried out and then went still, disappearing under the water. The 23-year-old was found multiple hours later at the bottom of the pool in Collingwood, where she worked.
Her father, John, heartbreakingly recounted watching the video from Kenya, where he lives.
“I watched that video. I cried. It is terrible.”
He said he continued to explain that Nyabuto was working part-time and studying nursing. She’d been living in Canada for three years before her tragic death, working to financially support her family, who still lives in Kisii, Kenya.
“She communicated with me two days before she perished. She sounded very fine, and I was very happy. She promised me a phone. I didn’t feel anything abnormal,” the grieving father recalled.
Since her passing, the family has been behind financially in addition to mourning Nyabuto’s death.
“She was assisting me financially to educate her siblings, particularly in terms of school fees and other expenses. I’m stuck now and back to square one. I’m wondering how her younger siblings will continue schooling,” the father told CNN. The only thing he wants now is for his daughter’s body to be brought back to the country where she was born.
“According to our tradition, one is supposed to be buried where he or she was born. I’ll not feel comfortable, psychologically, if my daughter is buried away from Kenya,” he explained. “The family is going through a rough time now. All we want is for her body to be transported back home for burial,” he reiterated.
The family’s GoFundMe campaign started to raise money for the burial expenses and has since raised over $50,000.