I’ll return to scatter his ashes in the sea
DAUGHTER LEFT IN £35K DEBT AFTER DAD’S DEATH IN TURKEY
THE debt-ridden daughter who spent three hellish months in Turkey, before narrowly avoiding detainment is already planning her trip back to Marmaris to fulfil her late dad’s final wish.
Jackie Nicholson arrived back in North Shields last Thursday after finally returning from the holiday which began in August but turned into a nightmare when her father, Joe, fell off his mobility scooter and broke his hip.
Yet hours after stepping through her front door she was already thinking about returning to the country which brought her so much misery.
She said: “I’ve got to go back to scatter his ashes, it’s what he said he wanted.
“I’m going to go out on a boat off the coast of Marmaris and pour half of his ashes in the sea and the other half will go in the sea at North Shields.”
Jackie was almost locked up in Turkey after her visa expired on November 12, meaning she was in the country illegally.
She had only been planning a short holiday but her father’s freak accident led to months in hospital, leading to her outstaying her right to be in the country.
Jackie claims that the British consulate in Marmaris warned her that if she did not cough up a £180 fine she would be detained at the airport and forbidden from boarding her flight back to the UK.
But, having lost her job and exhausted her money on hotel bills, she was completely skint and could not afford to pay the authorities. Her mother managed to send her £100 but, still £80 short, Jackie was fearing imprisonment and was desperate for the remaining funds.
Hours before her flight back to London, a hotel receptionist called Cem, who she had befriended, gave her the money and she was able to fly back to Stansted before travelling by train to Newcastle. “I’m so grateful” she said. “If it wasn’t for Cem I’d probably still be stuck in Turkey and wouldn’t have been able to see my kids.
“I also would never have been allowed into the country again and wouldn’t be able to scatter my dad’s ashes.”
Jackie has two children, 14-yearold John and six-year-old Sean who she had not seen in months other than through a phone screen on Face Time. Last week, she was finally reunited with her sons and was “buzzing” to spend time with them after a long and tough period away.
She said: “I was absolutely buzzing to see them. I couldn’t wait.
“When I saw John he ran up to me and gave me a big hug.
“Sean went all shy at first, but after a few moments we had a big cuddle.”
Although Jackie is planning a return trip to Turkey to carry out her father, Joe Nicholson’s final wish, she is unsure how she will fund the journey.
A hefty £35,000 bill from Ahu Hospital, where Joe spent three months receiving treatment for pneumonia after his operation, meant that she has been plunged into debt. She is currently repaying in £50-a-week installments.
Yet her time stranded in Turkey lost Jackie her job as a desk clerk in a taxi office and has forced her on to benefits, meaning that she only receives £140 a fortnight and will struggle to meet the repayment plan.
After she has arranged Joe’s funeral and has taken the time to grieve properly she will begin looking for another job and will take “anything” she can get.
Jackie is currently being helped by her friends Donna and Louise, who she is living with because she cannot bear to be alone in the building she used to share with her father.
Unless she “wins the lottery”, she will be saddled with the debt for over 14 years and possibly even longer than that if she has to pay off her debts at a slower rate of £20 a week, which her solicitor is trying to secure.
Jackie was slapped with the £35,000 bill after Joe caught pneumonia following treatment in hospital after his hip operation.
After the successful operation, he slipped in and out of several comas before suffering organ failure and dying on November 21.
When she was in Turkey, Jackie told the Sunday Sun’s sister paper, The Chronicle: “His condition got worse then it got better then it got worse again.
“He was put on a life support machine for a while and went into a coma.
“I had to say goodbye to him about three times but each time he managed to get better.
“On the weekend before he died he seemed fine and was talking to me.
“But all of his organs just packed in and he died at about 9.30pm that night [November 21].”
Joe’s funeral is at 11am on Friday, December 21, at Tynemouth Cemetery and all are welcome to attend.