Hellen Wendy Nyabuto can be seen in a video as she struggles to stay afloat after diving into the deep end of the pool last week.
The 23-year-old health worker, who lives in Toronto, had earlier responded to viewer comments before resuming swimming.
Her body was seen hours later at the bottom of the pond. According to her brother, she drowned in Collingwood, Ontario, the city where she was working.
“I watched this video. I cried. It’s horrible,” her father, Nyabutu John Kiwende, 56, told CNN from his home in Kenya.
“She called me two days before her death. She seemed fine and I’m very happy. She promised me a phone. I didn’t feel anything abnormal,” he said.
Nyabutu lived with her younger brother Enoch in an apartment in Toronto and worked part-time as a health worker while studying nursing, her family said.
“She’s been in Canada for about three years,” said Enoch, who is one of her five siblings.
“All the financial responsibilities (of their family in Kenya) were on their shoulders,” he added.
‘Back to square one’
Wendy’s father, a smallholder farmer in Kisii, southwest Kenya, said he was “back to square one” now that his daughter is gone.
“She was helping me financially for her siblings’ education, especially with regards to school fees and other expenses. I’m stuck now and back to square one. I wonder how her younger siblings will continue to study,” Keunde told CNN.
All he wants now is to return his daughter’s body to Kenya.
“According to our tradition, one is supposed to be buried in the place of one’s birth. I will not feel psychologically comfortable if I bury my daughter away from Kenya,” he said.
“The family is going through a difficult time now. All we want is to take her body home for burial,” he said.
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