Contra Costa Nonprofit Grants Antioch Vietnam Veteran and Wife One More Safari West Adventure

With the help of An Elderly Wish Foundation, a Contra Costa County nonprofit that grants wishes to older adults, 82-year-old Antioch resident and Vietnam War veteran Jim Ledbetter and his wife, Lynn Confetti-Ledbetter, recently returned to the Safari West wildlife preserve in Santa Rosa for what they expect to be Jim's final trip to their favorite getaway.

Rated 100% disabled by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Jim has progressively lost sensation and mobility in his legs — symptoms he attributes largely to Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War — and now relies on a wheelchair.

An Elderly Wish Foundation organized the couple's return visit, providing an overnight stay in the same canvas tent the Ledbetters had stayed in on earlier anniversary trips, along with a dedicated safari vehicle and private guide.

Familiar Landmarks and Wildlife Sightings

During their private tour across the Sonoma County preserve, the couple's vehicle drove directly into a herd of Ankole-Watusi cattle, and the pair observed a Cape buffalo, giraffes, and a rhinoceros with her calf — a meaningful moment for Lynn, who remembered seeing the mother rhinoceros pregnant on their previous visit.

They also reunited with Marilyn, an ostrich named after Marilyn Monroe that had poked her head into the couple's safari vehicle on an earlier trip. At the aviary, where steps near the cheetah enclosure posed a mobility challenge, Jim insisted on navigating the steps slowly one at a time before being wheeled among the birds with his camera.

"Sometimes the opportunity is taken away from you before you have the chance to do it," Jim told Contra Costa Pulse. "I had the opportunity to come back to some place that is very special for me and also for Lynn."

Returning to Their "Special Place"

That evening beneath Safari West's open-air dining pavilion, the couple returned to the same small two-person table where they had dined on prior visits, trading stories about how they first met through a newspaper personal ad Jim had placed years ago.

Before departing for Santa Rosa, Jim wrote a letter thanking An Elderly Wish Foundation for arranging the journey.

"And now, thanks to the generosity and kindness of the Elderly Wish Foundation, I have been given one more adventure to look forward to," Jim wrote.