In a tale that sounds stranger than fiction, Lodge was in love with a woman he had never seen or heard from. But he sent her all his savings.
The 69-year-old is in Kenya on a tourism visa that expires next month and only has Sh12,000 left in his bank account, which can neither afford him a home in Kenya nor an air ticket back to Europe.
After his wife of 25 years died, the loneliness sent him searching for love and company. They had no children.
And then he met Anita through a chain of friends. She was 39.
Things moved rather fast and Lodge offered his money to complete what would have been their matrimonial home in Voi, Taita Taveta county.
He wired some Sh15 million to the new love between last year and as late as last month.
In December, the love-struck widower took a flight to Kenya, hoping to be received with a warm embrace.
He didn't have Anita's telephone number and only communicated with her through another woman named Mary.
“I never saw her image and whenever I tried to ask for her direct number, there were always excuses,” he said.
What he knows is that Mary lived in Utawala in Nairobi and, lately, the narrative was that she moved to Juba, South Sudan.
The Sh15 million Lodge sent in multiple tranches was finishing a four-bedroom home Anita she had allegedly constructed.
“We agreed that I come over in December 2023, so that we have our wedding this year.”
The woman won his trust when she said was a mother of two grown-up children in university in the United States and that she lived in Karen.
Once in Nairobi, the communication got shaky.
Anita said she was in Mombasa and resisted a sustained push to return to Nairobi to meet Lodge.
“She would cite various excuses, including that she was attending to family problems in Mombasa and could not travel to Nairobi. When I offered to got to Mombasa and meet her, she refused,” he said.
Meanwhile, the man kept sending money. And then the woman vanished.
Lodge has since established that the number he was sending money to belonged to his friend Mary. Anita never existed.
