A Billion Blue Wildebeest

A joyous bucket-list trip turned into a life-changing test of love and resilience.

In 2017, Catherine, a Canadian in her fifties, returned to Tanzania to revisit the childhood landscape that had shaped her: the mongooses that darted across her path, the elephants that thundered toward her, the endless herds of wildebeests, and even a lion feared as a man-eater. Her memories from the early 1970s brim with wonder, humor, and the occasional shadow of death.

But her nostalgic journey ended with a...