Answer:
The narrator lost her mother in a car accident, leaving her father to plan for the burial with his sister Annette. That was also the year that the narrator was sent off to the boarding school.
Explanation:
In the short story "Night Calls", by Lisa Fugard, the narrator is a young girl who lived with her parents at the Modder River where they ran a small conservation unit. The year she described as "difficult" was the year her mother died in a car accident. Her father planned the burial with the narrator's aunt named Annette. Aunt Annette also suggested that the narrator be taken to the boarding school to continue her study.
That was also the year some officials from the park came to deliver a special bird that was going extinct to the narrator's father for the purpose of conservation. The bird was a Night Heron.
