2026 Life Logs, Day 300 (65 days left in 2026): Meeting Grace Ge Gabriel
Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Weather: Beautiful Day, but Cooler; High Temp 55, Low 34 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth MA
It never ceases to amaze me how you can meet the most interesting people in the most common places. For instance, who would think you would meet the woman who founded the China office of the International Fund of Animal Welfare (IFAW) at a reception at your sister’s memory care facility? Well, I did this afternoon. Grace Ge Gabiel was a Chinese-born American news editor who went undercover in Shanghai to buy wild animal body parts and emerged to found the IFAW. It was meeting one particular elephant that changed her life path from journalist to animal rights activist. At some point, Grace brought her mother to this country to live with her, but when Grace’s husband died five years ago and her mother began to show signs of dementia, her life changed again. While working her way through this new phase of her life, she decided to grieve by writing a book. Blood Ivory will be available in January, published by Simon and Schuster. It tells of her fight to save the world’s most endangered animals.
So how did I meet Grace today? After visiting with my sister Patsy at Bridges afternoon, I went to the community room to attend a reception introducing the new executive director of Bridges. I didn’t see anyone I knew, so I walked over to the table laden with gorgeously presented appetizers and a woman walked over and introduced herself to me. It was Grace. It was when she told me she had worked with Jane Goodall that I became totally enthralled. About 45 minutes later we stopped talking just long enough to toast the new director. We parted by sharing contact information and with a promise to meet again.
I love it when special things happen on special days. If Mark were still living, today would have been our 52nd wedding anniversary. Meeting Grace inspired me to think of all of the wonderful encounters Mark and I had with various animals on our sail around the world, both on land and in the water. Meeting Princess, the orphaned orangutan who was raised by Dr. Birute Galdikas at Camp Leaky on the island of Borneo was definitely the highlight. As was watching a pair of Galapagos tortoises mate and anchoring next to a colony of Galapagos penguins.. And then there was the close encounter with a hippo in Kruger National Park in South Africa. The afternoon we hovered over an octopus showing off his changing colors in Madagascar was so special. As was the day I met my first clown anemonefish in the Komodo islands in Indonesia. And in honor of Grace’s love of elephants, the baby elephants in Kruger. I could go on all evening, as these are just a few of the breathtaking encounters with animals around the world. Thinking about these things were my gift to myself on this anniversary evening. What a wonderful world of nature!
