From the US with love ... the agonies of getting home

It has been a journey of love – returning home and into the arms of the woman he adores – for one Cape Town man who has been given the all-clear after returning from the US.

Matthew Kalil has dreamed since the lockdown began of being reunited with his wife.

He said: “My journey began in a small town called Fairfield in Iowa. I was working on the David Lynch Masters in Fine Arts programme in screen writing as a professor. I had arrived in January and was waiting for my wife to join me on 2 April.

“But then international flights were cancelled. I didn’t know when I’d see her again. So I decided to take this repatriation flight back to her.”

His journey began on a single-propeller plane to Chicago; then continued on a commercial flight from Chicago to Washington DC. There, he spent two nights in a hotel.

The official repatriation flight followed. And then began quarantine, at Sandton’s Capital-on-Park Hotel, provided by the South African government.

On Tuesday, Kalil was released after being tested for the coronavirus and receiving a clean bill of health.

He said: “It’s been tough having to totally let go and trust the process. There is so much unknown: don’t know if you have a ticket on the plane; don’t know what day you will leave; and also don’t know when test results will be back. Will you be negative, positive?

“And all that stress and worry take a toll. I think I have many more grey hairs now for sure.

“Then there is the financial cost. I reckon this whole thing ... it’s close to R25 000. But it’s worth it.

“I also couldn’t sleep. Not just jet lag but also the stress. And then the strain of so many days in airplane seats.

“The mental strain of being quarantined for so long was surprising. It really takes a lot to keep positive and keep believing. I don’t mind if the whole world goes up in flames, as long as I am with the woman I love when it happens.”

At the time of going to press, Kalil was still in Johannesburg, “hoping to get to Cape Town as soon as possible”.

“I’m going to fall into her arms. I have waited so long. I have taken such a battering. I just want my wife’s arms around me once again.”

– News24 Wire

I’m going to fall into her arms