A woman has revealed the heartbreaking final moments she shared with her father before he was killed by an elephant.
Lily Burgess was just 17 when her beloved dad Simon left their family home in Zambia for a trip to South Luangwa National Park.
The devoted father, from Bristol, had asked the now 23-year-old Lily to join him, but she reluctantly stayed behind to focus on school.
READ MORE: ‘Doctors said my stye was cosmetic and I’d have to PAY to remove it – it was DEADLY’
When Simon came to her bedroom to say goodbye, he tried to give his teenage daughter a hug but she refused, annoyed at being woken up.
The next day, Lily was watching a film at home when her grandparents arrived unexpectedly and told her and her mum, Cherryl, 51, there had been an accident.
Simon, also dad to Adam, 21, had been killed by an elephant, aged 63.
“I was extremely close with my dad,” Lily, who works in a bar and now lives in East Yorkshire, told Need To Know.
“He was my best friend and understood me better than anyone.
“The morning he left I was woken up by the sound of him grabbing things from the kitchen and remember being upset that I couldn’t go with him.
“Once he had put everything in the car he came to my room to say goodbye.
“I remember everything so vividly.
“The door opened and he walked towards my bed and tried to give me a hug but I refused because, in my typical teenage way, I was being a massive grump and didn’t want to be woken up fully, so I never said goodbye.
“Then he left home.
“The next day, me, mum and Adam were happily doing our own thing when there was a beep at the gate.
“It was my grandparents who were on holiday so I let them in thinking they had popped round for an impromptu tea and biscuits visit.
“Their car drove rather speedily up the driveway and parked.
“When my granny got out I could tell something wasn’t right, she looked like she’d been crying.
“I tried to hug them both but they very quickly ushered me into the living room where I had just been, called my mum out of the kitchen and told me to get my brother.
“We were all now standing in the living room filled with worry as my granny announced, ‘There’s been an accident’.
“I never would have imagined what she would say next.
“She said ‘your daddy’s dead’.
“Just like that.
“I remember feeling as if I were glued to the floor, I couldn’t move.
“Once my granny confirmed that Dad had been killed by an elephant, it was like I suddenly remembered I had legs.
“I ran out into the garden and started to scream.
“I had never screamed like that before and have never screamed like that since.
“It’s all a little blurry as I think my brain has tried to block most of that day out but I do remember my grandfather wrapping his arms around me and holding me with all his might while I screamed and shouted up at the sky.
“The only word that kept coming out of my mouth was ‘why’.
“I couldn’t understand why that had to happen to my dad.
“The feeling that came after my hours of sobbing and screaming was numbness.”
Simon had been helping establish a camp in the park in November 2020 when he and a group went to check a borehole providing water to the site.
The area was in peak calving season for elephants.
A large bull elephant emerged from behind a shrub and charged the group.
Lily said: “The rest of the group reacted as anyone else would and ran toward the camp.
“It was very much an every man for himself situation.
“Because dad had a bad leg and was just getting over a bout of shingles, he couldn’t run as fast as everyone else and he also ended up running in the complete opposite direction from the camp where the elephant got him.
“We think the elephant pierced him with its tusk and, or threw him and, or trampled him.
“The group returned to camp, realised dad wasn’t there and went looking for him once they knew it was safe to do so.”
His death certificate recorded blunt and penetrating injuries to the chest and blunt force trauma to the head.
He died before he could be taken to hospital.
Lily said: “The days and weeks following his death are a bit of a blur.
“Tensions and emotions became quite high too as we all came to realise that dad was an enormously important piece of our family and in a lot of ways, held us all together.
“He was cremated and I was handed a wooden box.
“That was him, that was all he was now, that was my dad.
“A box of dust that I would never be able to speak to, hug, sing or go fishing with, or pour a whisky for ever again.
“My best friend in the entire world reduced to nothing but some pieces of wood.
“On the way home from the crematorium, in my shellshocked state, I took myself and Dad, in his box, to my favourite coffee shop and sat down.
“One of the waiters who knew me came up to take my order and innocently asked if I had an animal in the box to which I replied, ‘No, it’s my dad’ with tears in my eyes and a soft smile on my face.
“I’ve found it extremely difficult to process my dad’s death.
“I feel like I wasn’t given the opportunity to process what had happened.
“I don’t think I can compare losing someone in a sudden, traumatic way to losing someone to an illness or old age.
“The safe household was broken because one of the loving parents was taken out of the equation, therefore, my healing process hasn’t been as straightforward as it once was.”
Lily describes Simon as her “best friend” whose greatest passions were his family, wildlife, fishing and the outdoors.
She said: “I miss so much about my dad.
“I miss his presence, being able to sit with him in silence.
“I miss his smile, his 20-second hugs he made me do with him every morning because he’d seen something online that said it boosts serotonin, the smell of his pipe tobacco, and the smell of his cologne.
“I miss playing darts with him, even though he usually won most of the time, I miss singing in the car with him, I miss him coming home hiccuping trying to tell me how he got a hole-in-one at golf.
“I miss how much I’d miss him when he wasn’t there.
“I miss absolutely everything about him and not a day goes by where I don’t think of him or wish he was here.”
Lily moved to East Yorkshire in 2021 to attend college, believing her dad would have wanted her to build a life for herself.
She attends therapy and finds ways to keep his memory alive.
Lily added: “Losing Dad has made me who I am today.
“Not healed, not whole, but an extremely grateful, patient, independent, life-loving individual who will do anything in her power to make him proud.
“I do hope I am making him proud.
“Dad brought my brother and I up to understand that wildlife is wild and to never blame an animal for acting on instinct.
“I don’t blame the elephant for its actions and neither do my mum or brother.
“Dad was the kind of person you’d meet and immediately know you had a friend for life.
“He was a warm, gentle man of unassuming proportions, oozing with charisma and charm.
“Many described, and still describe him as a true gentleman.
“He taught both my brother and I how to fish and made sure to take us out whenever we had time as well as going off to South Africa annually with one of his very close friends to do some trout fishing with their fly rods.
“My first memory of him in a job was working as an independent financial advisor.
“I always remember visiting his office with mum just to play with the massive glass paperweight sat on his desk.
“The thing that gave Dad away was his signature style.
“This consisted of two-toned safari shirts, camouflage or khaki chino shorts, a wide-brimmed hat preferably with an old guinea fowl feather tucked into it, a pair of sunglasses and of course a pipe hanging out his mouth, one of many from his collection.
“There isn’t one memory I have of Dad where he didn’t have a pipe in hand.
“He was the first to hold me when I was born while my mum recovered from her emergency c-section.
“Another family member who was present said they’d never known a man to go so quiet when he held me for the first time.
“I was a true daddy’s girl from then onwards and still am to this day.
“As a child, all I wanted to do was be around him all the time.
“He taught me how to swim, fish, play golf, braai, play Killer with darts and much more.
“He was the most doting, loving father I could’ve asked for and I can’t help but feel extremely lucky.”
READ MORE: Mum 24 dies during ‘dream’ boob job and body-sculpting surgery
