‘I must get my wife home alive’
● PE woman stranded in Laos attempts suicide
A Port Elizabeth police captain, stuck in a southeast Asian country with his chronically ill wife, is terrified that he will have to bring her back home in a body bag if they are not repatriated soon.
The couple have one last chance to get out of Laos, with the last repatriation flight for the foreseeable future scheduled for June 14, but at this stage they are doubtful they will even be allowed onto the aircraft.
It has been one disappointment after another, with several failed — and hugely expensive — attempts to cross the border into Bangkok, Thailand, from where they had hoped to catch a flight home.
Meanwhile, they are spending thousands of rands every few weeks to renew their visas.
The trip overseas — their first — had been a dream holiday for Pierre and Yolanda Wilkinson.
But when the borders closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the romantic getaway quickly turned into a nightmare.
Surviving on one meal a day, the couple have had to beg family back home for financial support.
With their credit cards now maxed out and overdraft limits reached, Wilkinson said he did not know if they would even have a roof over their heads in two weeks’ time.
“It is not our fault that we are stuck here.
“We are just two people begging to go home,” he said.
Yolanda, 51, has, meanwhile, attempted to commit suicide.
She suffers from severe depression and is just skin and bones at 48kg.
She is chronically ill with a severe heart condition and is at risk of having a heart attack at any time.
Pierre, 48, who is stationed at the Swartkops Police Station, said his priority was to get his wife home alive.
“We need to get back to SA where our medical aid is so that my wife can receive the medical treatment she needs.
“She will require surgery in the very near future.
“I don’t know how the heck I am going to do it but I need to get my wife home alive.
“If this carries on, she is going to go back in a body bag.”
He said the SA embassy in Thailand had tried to assist them, to no avail.
“People here don’t speak our language, making it difficult to do the most basic of things. We share a meal at night, either noodles or rice, because we only have enough money for one meal a day.”
Wilkinson said they had paid $400 (R6,898) to be taken over the border via ambulance, only to be turned back.
“We had planned this holiday for a year and saved up enough money.
“The plan was to go to Thailand, then Laos and back to Thailand.”
They arrived in Laos on March 15, after five days in Bangkok.
“Unfortunately, while we were here, no-one told us what was happening, we just received an e-mail to say our flight back to Thailand had been cancelled.”
Wilkinson said there had been a repatriation flight from Thailand on May 8, but that they could not make it because they were not allowed to cross the Laos-Thai border.
“This was our first time to go overseas. I won’t leave my country again, I promise you that,” a distraught-sounding Wilkinson said.
They missed their family immensely.
Their youngest daughter turns 21 on Thursday and they will not be here to celebrate her big day.
“Permanent damage is being done,” Wilkinson said.
“I have been in the police for 29 years and never asked anyone for money in my life before.
“Now I have had to beg friends and family for money. I don’t know how I am going to face these people.
“All I want is to walk around proudly in my uniform.”
An emotional Yolanda said they had not received any refunds on their cancelled flights.
They had paid almost R300,000 for Yolanda to undergo testing at a private hospital to show cause why she needed to be evacuated immediately. Nothing came of it, the couple said.
“I tried to commit suicide. I cannot deal with the stress,” Yolanda said, breaking down in tears. There is nothing left of me.
“There is nothing left to give of me any more.
“We cannot continue doing this,” she said.