Nancys Life


Her early years in Kenya
Nancy  was  born in 1968 in Kiambu as the daughter of David Gacheru Kihiko and Miryam Njoki Gacheru.
She grew up with the her brothers Stanley Njoroge, known as Kamurigo, Geoffrey Mukuria,  Allan Kihiko, James N´Dungu, Charles Kiarie and her sisters Elisabeth, Wanchiko, Jane Ruguru, Mary Wambui. in a village near Kikuyu.
After finishing school she worked at first  in a bakery near Kikuyu Town, then later as a cooker in a restaurant in Nairobi.

Cooking was one of her gifts, and in the  restaurant, for example, the guests respected her as one of the best cookers,  so that even her boss told her to instruct the  trainees in the kitchen.

Later, after a change in her private life, Nancy rented a kiosk from the owner of a pub. With wit and her charm  she won a lot of friends and  customers.

After the landlord closed her kiosk in 1997 she came to Cologne in Germany to help one of her cousins, who needed a housemate. That work didn´t really satisfy her, and after she won some new friends in Cologne, she got a new job and another flat in the middle of Cologne.

It was a small flat on the 3rd floor, normally for students of the local universities, but it was here, where our common life started.

Our love

Before Nancy and me knew each other we lived some few months as neighbours in the same house. When I began my studies in Cologne, I shifted  from my parents house in a small village to Cologne, that is one of the metropols in Germany. At the time I met Nancy for the first time, I had already finished my studies for some couples of months.

On 9thmarch 1998 I rushed down the stairway from my flat, because I wanted to go to town. Before I passed Nancys floor, I could see somebody, standing behind the door-window to the entrance-hall, and instead of ignoring as usal and going on my own way, I waved with my hands. But that “Somebody” behind the door was amazed, that I waved to her and she opened the door  I had to pass it.

For one second we couldn´t say anything, but then we introduced each other and from the following Thursday, the 12th march, we fell in love and staid together, til Nancy passed away.

In the following December 1998 we travelled together to Kenya and we got married  (officially)  in Nairobi. In the following years, whenever Nancy could manage to save some money, she helped her family several times with medication-money or school-money or by sending down things like dresses and once even spare parts for a car.

From october 2000, at least, we shifted to a bigger flat in the surburbs of Cologne, and the following months have been very busy to find all the furnitures we wanted.

In 2001/2002 we managed again to visit her family in Kenya, while two sisters of Nancy, Mary Wambui and Jane Ruguru, staid in Cologne for visiting a language school. During the following years, Nancy always had open ears for the problems of her siblings in Kenya, and very often, she gave her complete salary. 

Our Baby and our brother Stanley

In 2004, after Nancy visited Kenya for at least the last time, she got pregnant and we hoped our dream of a family would become true . Every visit at the gynacologist was full with tension, because we wanted to know, how far our baby has grown in her stomac.

But in january 2005, Nancys brother Stanley Njoroge, better known as ´Kamurigo´, suffered a stroke in the head and he staid in  several hospitals.

Nancy, however now high pregnant, decided direct to organize help for her family, because the costs for the treatment in the hospitals threatened Nancys old parents with poverty. In Cologne some of her friends helped her with connections to other Kenyans by collecting donations and  selling CDs . At least, together, they saved the familiy of Nancy.

At least on 25th April 2005 Nancy gave birth to our little daughter Miriam Karin Njoki Huthmacher. The name of our baby unites both grandmothers names. Miriam was becoming our both sunshine and Nancy always said, that God blesssed us with a beautiful and sweet baby.

But Njoroge in Kenya still needed medical treatment, and that time  Nancy insisted, that Njoroge had to be treated in Germany. I have to confess that at the beginning it was against my resistance -because our flat is just big enough for us both as parents and our own child. 

But the strong will of Nancy won and in september 2005, Njoroge came to Germany to be treatened for his desease. 

The bills for his treatment now have been laid on our shoulders and Nancy prayed for a new job, because since the birth  of our dauhter, she had at first no chance to work and to take care for her brother.When Nancy was workomg, Njoroge or –baada ya kazi Mimi- I had to take care for Miriam, . But at the end, it meant, that Nancy worked during the last two years of her life, every night (til 3 or 4 o´clock in the morning) over the full week-end at brasserie Brughel in the middle of Cologne and very often many other days over the week. 

In her free time, she organized with some friends a benefit concert for her brother , especially with the help of Onita Boone, 

She only a very little time to take care for her daughter, because her sick brother Stanley also required care.

The End

After two years of hard work, and being pregnant in fourth month with our second daughter Maria, Nancy suddenly startet coughing and getting heat waves followed by cold  waves. The first small signs she ignored, but two days with feaver and coldness attacks persuaded her to visit our house doctor. Immediately the lady doctor expected an infection for the lounges, but there was no evidence (Friday 17th august 2007). The proof in form as the result of a blood test three days later made it necessary to take Nancy to the University Hospital of Cologne (Monday 20th august 2007) where the doctors constated a pneumonia, In the night to Thursday, her situation got more worse, Nancy couldn´t breath enough by herself anymore and the doctors transfered her to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

On Friday the 24th august then, it was the last day for me and Nancy to talk together. Nancy always felt thirsty and  she remebered how my late oncle died years ago and she asked me direct, wether she has to die now, too. I denied, because I couln´t imagine, that a pneumonia can be lethal in Germany nowadays. 

On the same day, the doctors tranfered her into a controlled coma, because Nancy lost a lot of strength for breathing, and the controlled coma should have help her body to recover.

Til this day, Nancy always asked for the situation of her baby, and every day, the doctors checked the babys life functions, even after Nancy was send into the controlled coma.

But on the fifth day in controlled coma, 29th august 2007, Nancy lost our baby. Maybe the -babcy itself collapsed or the efforts for Nancys body were too strong. Our baby Maria was born dead.

For the next two days, Nancy seemed to recover, but the following week-end brought a crisis and from 1st til 10th sepember all medical equipment and all prayers couldn´t help Nancy anymore. Maybe it was a mercy for Nancy, that she didn´t know about the death of her second daughter, but the death of Nancy left our innocent daughter Miriam without a loved mother.

With great sorrow, Nancy was laid to rest on 17th september our little daughter Maria Elisabeth Wanjiku Huthmacher at the cemetry in Cologne-Immendorf. 
At the end they are united.