How A Chance Meeting On Vacation Helped An 81-Year-Old Widow Rediscover Joy

How A Chance Meeting On Vacation Helped An 81-Year-Old Widow Rediscover Joy

When Trudy Veenstar’s husband Auke passed away in April 2023, she didn’t just lose a life partner, she lost her travel buddy. It wasn’t until nearly a year later, Veenstar booked her first solo trip: a two-and-a-half-week trip to Kenya. 

“As much as I missed including my husband in the planning, I am a traveler and I have always had it in me; I was so ready to get back out traveling,” Veenstar told the British news outlet SWNS.

But Veenstar wasn’t alone for long. Mere hours into her safari trip, Veenstar walked up to a table of strangers and struck up a conversation with 44-year-old Melisa Boddie.

“I was eating breakfast and a woman asked if I minded her sitting with us for breakfast,” Boddie said. “That is when we learned that her husband died a year prior and this was her first trip without him.” 

“Trudy is a lovely woman,” Boddie added. “She is so funny and so lovely.”

The feeling was mutual. 

“I never expected to leave with such a close group of friends, never expected to form such a bond with them,” said Veenstar.

To this day, the women have monthly FaceTime calls to stay in touch. Travel is always at the center of conversation, but as a globe-trotter, Veenstar finds it difficult to find places she hasn’t traveled to yet. 

“We are all wanting to plan another trip together, we are going to the Galapagos Islands but Trudy has been before so she isn’t coming,” Boddie laughed. 

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Header image via Caleb Oquendo / Pexels 

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