STUCK IN WALES AFTER DYING DAD DASH
A DEVOTED daughter is stuck in Wales after flying 9,500 miles from Australia to be at her dying dad’s bedside.
Pearl Findlay-James made the journey when she got a call from her elderly dad saying: “Pearl, when are you coming? I’m dying.”
The grandmother-of-ten applied to leave Australia on compassionate grounds, but had no idea she would get stuck in the UK.
Pearl now fears her stay will last even longer as stricter lockdown restrictions are brought in across South Wales.
She said: “My whole family are in Australia. My husband, my children and my 10 grandchildren. It’s time to go home.”
Pearl, who lives in Paynesville, Victoria, caught her flight in July when her dad Patrick James, 90, was taken to hospital.
She said: “He rang me and was quite upset. Dad said, ‘Pearl, when are you coming? I’m dying.’
“I said, ‘Dad I’ll do my best.’ The hospital said he was OK, but I’ve always trusted my Dad.”
Dad Patrick died just four days after his daughter arrived in the country.
Pearl was able to arrange for palliative care at his house in Pembroke Dock and was at his bedside when he passed away.
But she is now desperate to get home and says she is facing huge fees as she can only find a first class ticket.
Pearl had already paid for a ticket to Melbourne, but will now have to pay extra to get into Sydney instead.
She said: “I’ve had an offer of a first class seat on the 2nd November into Sydney. My ticket is business class into Melbourne which I paid $8,900 for and I will have to pay an extra $4,000 for the new ticket.”
Pearl says she will also have to pay $3,000 towards quarantine fees when she arrives back in Australia.
She said: “All returning Australians have to pay $3,000 towards their mandatory two-week quarantine on top of their air-fare.
“The UK is heading into its second wave and I’m worried this will make it even harder to get home.
“I’ve joked to my daughters – you better get ready to cook the Christmas turkey, because I don’t know if I’m going to be there.”
Pearl added: “I can take to my grave that I sat and held my dad while he went to God. Nobody can ever take that away from me, no matter what my journey is now.”