A survivor yearns for Paradise
Newfoundlander caught in Amman blast Cuts short Mideast trip to head home
AMMAN— When a suicide bomber ignites himself the next stop is paradise. Or so he is led to believe. When Canadian traveller Cheryl Fisher stumbled out of the smoke- filled corridors of the Grand Hyatt Hotel Wednesday night, she knew instantly that Paradise was her next destination as well.
Having survived the Jordanian terror onslaught with millimetres to spare, all Fisher could think about was cutting short her first- ever journey to the Middle East and going home. And home is truly Paradise — Paradise, Nfld., on the outskirts of St. John’s. “Nothing ever blows up in Newfoundland. There’s nothing to bomb,” an exasperated Fisher, 30, said yesterday during a chance encounter in the lobby of another, thus far, unblemished Amman hotel.
“ The closest we’ve even been to terrorism is when Newfoundlanders opened their houses to all those people whose planes had to land suddenly on 9/ 11.
“ Otherwise, Canada is the safest place in the world, and Newfoundland is the safest place in Canada. And that’s where I’m going: Home. As soon as possible.”
Fisher, an international recruitment officer for Newfoundland’s Memorial University, was just three days into a Canadian-government sponsored tour to pitch Mideast students on the merits of continuing their education in St. John’s. Safety, ironically, is a central feature of the recruitment drive. She had just finished a swim in the hotel’s second-floor pool and was handing back her locker key when the walls in front of her buckled. A suicide bomber had detonated in the lobby bar one floor below, sending a massive shudder through the building.
“ It was mayhem. Total mayhem. The wall in front of me just sort of collapsed. And then everyone was screaming in Arabic,” she said.
“ I’m not a calm person. But somehow we made our way out. I found myself on the street, looking at glass everywhere. . . .
“ All I could think was, ‘ Please, let it be a propane tank.’ ”
Fisher spent 90 minutes outside with other shaken guests watching the blur of ambulances and rescue workers. The Hyatt management then regrouped, dividing guests into groups and leading them on foot to shelter at other nearby hotels. Though Fisher describes her parents as “ not CNN watchers,” news of the blast reached them even before the reassuring phone call from their daughter two hours later. Cheryl was safe.
Fisher was expecting to enjoy a bit of down-time today, with plans to pamper herself with a mud bath at a Dead Sea resort. And then on to Dubai, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait hunting foreign students for Memorial. But that was the old plan.
Instead, she spent last night as a guest of one of the Canadian Embassy’s Jordanian staffers. She should be winging her way back to Canada today.
“ I just can’t see carrying on in this frame of mind. I knew it was a rough neighbourhood. But this is so unfortunate because Jordan is a beautiful place. I walked around, I felt safe,” she said. “ But after this, I’m doubting I could ever come back.”