https://regardingparents.wordpress.com/2014/07/27/life-is-short/

Simon was an incredible guy, never frightend to do any thing, he was fun, crazy, enjoyed life to the full and died while having fun in his new aeroplane.. So he deserved a good send off..

We found the most amazing spot in the middle of the Kaisut desert with lovely trees for camping, an incredible flat strip for planes to land on and a pile of rocks in the shape of an arena to do the talking!! As a back ground we had the Ndoto mountains, and Poi which was beautiful and the desert was buzzing with good vibes!

We managed to get the whole family out to Kenya.. From France, Morocco, America and Peru, plus 80 friends of Simons, so totalling 101 people ( 21 aeroplanes) to celebrate his life at Soit Ele-Salau.. All sitting on the rocks in the middle of nowhere to say goodbye.. Also at 6.00 pm we had people all over the world lifting a glass at the same time as us on the rocks to Simon!.. The Rendille elders started the whole ceremony with a lovely blessing!!

Fuzz Dyer who has taken on Simons beautiful 1954 aeroplane ( cessna 180) managed to land it near the rocks and it was silloueted, as we had a slow 'fly' past of 40 camels as the sun was setting!! The camels all settled near a huge bon fire, while lots of stories and happy memories and laughter were pouring out.. The almost full moon rose soon after and we had a wonderful dinner and evening under the stars.. ...

After that, most of the family walked the 100 kms back to Elkanto from the rocks!! Ileana his wife who was in the plane crash with him, her life in ruins one year ago, including a completly smashed knee, also walked, Lemagas carried her's and simon's 1 year and 8 month baby, and my mother went in the car, which caught up with us when ever possible!.. While crossing the south end of the Ndotos on a lovely rock, looking back into the desert and the whirl winds, suddenly the warriors burst into a song for Simon.. very moving!! ( a lot of the pictures are taken on this pass!)

So all in all a great farewell, and special way to honor a brother who loved life!!

We put his ashes into the lake at Baringo 2 weeks later and every one broke down and cried but suddenly a huge storm, with wind and rain came from nowhere ( organsed by Simon!!!) We all jumped into the lake, cleared the tears and rushed back to the Island!!

The next morning a beautiful sunrise to beat all!! (organised by Simon!!!)

Anyway I recon the moral of the story is enjoy, stay well and be happy!!

Dear Helen,
>
> You and your family are such very old and valued friends - we go back a long
> way to those unforgettable days of the Mau forest. I would not have missed
> Simon's Kwaheri for anything in the world, and what a truly fabulous
> send-off you arranged; the work you and your team must have put into it was
> mind-boggling. I don't believe there has ever been, in Kenya, such a
> farewell. I appreciated it immensely and thank you yet again for letting me
> share that day with you and so many of your Kenya friends.
>
> Your email 'we made it a message of thanks' is filed with my other treasured
> memories.
>
> Sarah joins me with a huge hug,
>
> Tony

So glad two of my favorite people got to meet and be together. I know you're besties now!!

Sra. Ileana q bella imagen, años sin saber de usted me encantaría volver a saludarla... la quiero y siempre la recuerdo... saludos! 

Adriana Santiago Mijangos 

Gosh, though it's heartbreaking to look at, I don't know that I've ever seen two more stunningly attractive people! Thank you for sharing Antoinette!

38th birthday, outfit chossen by Dylan, July 2013...

I was skydiving at the Aero club one Saturday, ‘several’ years ago. Simon walks up to say Jambo and suggested I come to the Mara with him for a party at Hugo & Rachel’s place. So we hop into his plane (I think a C175) and fly off. What a wonderful last minute bit of excitement.

I am quite a nervous flyer so I asked him not to do anything stupid to impress me and appreciated his gallantry when he complied to my ‘no’ to flying into the crater and ‘no’ to doing very low passes at his other friends as we flew past them along the way. As we got to the farm he said he would do a low pass but not too low. I was, again, happy and relieved he didn’t touch the wheels on the tops of the trees as we approached them but just as we were above the party,  that had already started, he pointed the plane up to the sky and flew directly up. 

‘Oh my God, what are you doing’ I manage to say, with the G force pressing into my body and the engine noise at full, permeating the air, and he laughs. I sit there in the seat, with my head making depressions against the backrest, and resign myself to what is going on as I have no control in the matter, just hoping it is all over very soon. A few seconds later the plane stalls. The air is silent and we seem to sit in the sky not moving for a while and then the plane slowly backslides through the sky back down to earth. The plane then does a few slow motion spins and movements and we start a head down dive. It felt like we were in one of those world war 2 movies where planes have been shot down. This time the G force is stronger as we plummet down to earth with no engines and only the whistling air passing by and the ground looming closer.

I look over and see Simon is a little tense and trying to do something with the controls. My whole body is in sensory overload and I wonder when my life is going to pass through my brain as I am just about to die. Just before we hit the deck the engines return and we manage to fly horizontal and miss the treetops by inches. 

Once we land I look over at Simon and say ‘Oh my God, that was close’ and he laughed and said ‘Shauri ya mungu, if it is your time to go, it is your time’. On pressing the issue that it was actually pretty scary and actually you didn’t have to encourage the end of your time to go sooner than necessary, he was adamant that it was fine and it obviously wasn’t in our destiny to go yet. He fully believed that when it was your time to go, it was your time to go.