A Love Letter to Jane

I felt the emotional response from the ranger family first-hand and what that meant to them to have you standing with them and asking others in the world to join you – it was palpable. I felt it too.  As you’ve always done, you gave the rangers and me hope in often difficult times. This on top of the huge demands and requests placed upon you from every direction.

I remember those huge demands on you and how sometimes, very seldomly, you, like the rest of us, got quite stressed. But I was lucky to be close enough at times to see how you handled that. How you dusted yourself off, ready to go again the next day, again and again, and again, until you’re 91! I’ve often said that you tour more than most rock stars at 300 days a year on the road, spreading your message of hope, and the need for action now!

I remember fondly walking through the gardens near Mary’s place in London and wondering at all the beauty of the spring flowers as we philosophised about serendipity and hope. You’ll remember at that very moment we came across a group of workmen releasing some ducklings and their mother into a pond, because they didn’t want to see them get hit by cars at a nearby building site. And they told you “We’ve all got to do our bit for the environment, don’t you think?”  Ha! He said that to you… and then he said, “Hang on- I’ve seen you on Animal Planet, haven’t I?”

There, serendipitously was the hope we were talking about! Inside everybody (well most people) is that desire somewhere to do the right thing, just like these workmen downing tools to save a few ducks.

One of my favourite quotes from you is within a narration you did for a Thin Green Line promotional video. You would often ask me to draft a script in your voice and instruct me to do my best Jane impersonation whilst writing it. You never missed a chance to tell me that I was “doing a pretty good Jane voice these days” but that you “made it just a little bit better and a little more authentically Jane”, with a cheeky smile on your face. So, my favourite line in this video was where you said, with great poise and in a very Churchillian way, “The time to act… is now!” Quite right, Jane!

I remember the challenging conversations we had during the elephant crisis and the dire situation in which elephants, rangers, and the conservation world found itself. You advised me often, including when large NGOs would sometimes take the lion share of fundraising without acknowledging nor supporting their smaller counterparts doing the frontline work. You told me to take the higher ground and lean into the issue without pointing the finger. For big decisions you always told me to follow my heart, to listen to that same calling that brought us together in a shared passion for mother nature.

I loved the last conversation you had with Lenny my son, about ants. You could see the fascination he had with them and that he wanted to share that with you, and you told him how some fire ants or army ants, the kind whose bites really hurt, crawled up your legs in your early days with the chimps in Gombe, and you were told that they were no problem if they didn’t get past your knees. But they didn’t follow the guidebook and bit you everywhere, and the only cure for it, without medicines, was some tomato paste applied on the bites and some gin and tomato paste taken orally! I’ve never seen my son sit so still and respectfully as he listened to your story… he still talks about it. Well, maybe I do more so.