Posted on 01/07/2007 1:51:52 PM PST by Hostage
I married 14 years ago and just had my firstborn, a son, this past September.
I met my wife in medical school. She was originally from Lithuania and when I met her she was on a H1-B visa working as an adjunct professor of internal medicine.
She had made significant contributions to medical science and had been asked to lecture at med school for the year. That was 16 years ago in the afterglow of the world of Ronald Reagan. She became a naturalized US citizen in 1996.
We've had a real love affair ever since but children did not come easy for us and we had given up hope the year before last when suddenly our prayers were answered with a 'miracle'. There were no fertility treatments, nothing artificial, just natural in its occurance but unexpected.
The birth of our son has been a joy without limit and it continues to be so. But prior to knowing of the miracle to come we had lived for years in despair (most couples with fertility problems will know exactly what I am talking about).
During those years of despair there was one other person whose despair seemed greater than our own, that was my wife's mother who still lives with her family in Lithuania. She wanted so badly to be a grandmother. She prayed and prayed and prayed. When my wife would call her on Sundays, her mother would always cry and it always fell to my wife to calm her down. This constant weeping, in addition to our own despair, was more than we could take and as a result my wife began to look for excuses not to call her mother.
News of the coming arrival of our son made my wife's mother a changed person. She wanted to come immediately but my wife's father has a herniated disc and cannot move unless heavily dosed with painkillers. We are trying to save money to get for him an operation that we hope will give him many years of freedom to move his body. He would also like to see his grandson.
But grandmother was able to get her sister and her son to look after grandfather while she travels to the US to see her blessed treasure, her grandson.
So we bought her a roundtrip ticket on Scandinavian Airlines and she connected in Copenhagen before setting foot in Seattle last night.
Her son had taken her to the US consulate last week to make sure her visa was in order. As she does not speak English, he wrote her a note (he is fluent in English and works as an IT professional throughout Europe) to present to customs that she was traveling to see her grandson and numbers to call if there were any problems. On the note he wrote our names, address, telephone numbers. He also gave her a cell phone and called me the day before she left to make sure I had her cell number.
Last night grandmother was making her way through customs and we were outside waiting for her with our 3 month old son. We were waiting a longtime when suddenly my cell phone rang and it was a customs official telling me that they needed to contact the daughter of a person they were holding. Knowing they were referring to my wife's mother I said "no problem, her daughter is right here waiting with me" and I handed the phone to my wife.
The customs official asked my wife to talk to her mother and to tell her to answer the questions they were asking her. My wife said she does not speak English and asked what questions did they have for her. They said to ask her if she had any cigars, weapons and so on in her possession. My wife was then put on the phone with her mother and repeated what the customs official had asked. They then let grandmother go.
Grandmother came up an escalator into the international baggage claim area with tears in her eyes and she at once saw me, then my wife and the baby. I thought the tears were of joy but my wife later told me they were tears of fear, fear that customs was going to send her back to Lithuania. But there were also tears and smiles of joy as grandmother and grandson immediately fell in love.
Here's the story and the reason we are "fed up".
Customs had asked grandmother a series of questions and she could not answer. She kept telling them "no English, no English" but they took her out of line and then called for a detail to escort her to a retention room, a room that was according to grandmother a long long way through many doors and up and down many floors. In this room they made her strip to her bra and panties and would not allow her to make any phone calls. She was left in this room crying when the customs lady called us on my cell phone.
She was let go out of the retention room but no one escorted her back to the customs line. She had no idea where she was and how to get back to where she was, in other words she was lost. I haven't asked yet how she found her way out because she is bonding with her long awaited grandchild and I don't want to spoil the happiness we all have now by pressing her for details.
Today she is doting on her grandson and both are all smiles. But her impression of America or at least Seattle SeaTac airport is forever a memory of fear.
I asked her if things went well when connecting in Copenhagen and she said "Copenhagen good, Seattle no good".
Your mother in law should have disguised herself as a 19 to 34-year-old man of middle eastern descent, carrying jihad propaganda and detailed maps of the New York subway system. She would have been in in a flash.
Too many stories like this, unfortunately. Ugh.
I absolutely believe your friend is just as you say. And he probably does a terrific job for our country. In and my wife deal with customs about five or six times a year. It only takes one little napoleon gestapo prick every few years to make you wish you had never returned to the dear old sod believe me!
D#mn, I am strapped with double 00 staples in my chest and trigger the metal detector every time.
Life's a b!tch, you marry a couple, and then you die is my philosophy.
I've never had a TSA "babe" check my crotch however....
Wishes just never come true though do they...
You and me both, babe! Had breast cancer at 26. Had a double mastectomy and reconstruction...didn't wanna wait for the other shoe to drop, so to speak.
I was sitting in a doctor's waiting room for an appointment. Had my x-rays.
Nosy me...I pulled 'em out. I yelped!!!
Yep...I'm fulla staples!!!
They will, just haven't smuggled in enuff shit yet. JUST kidding epwpgs old boy
LOL!
I think you just made my day, and my family's as well. This is exactly the kind of information I was hoping somehow to find. A big thank you to you and yours.
d#mn, I earned mine in my last life.
I am now going on 7 years old, since having my heart removed and repaired.
Well, life was good and now it's good again with staples.
No I didn't see any white lights...
With the original post no longer accessible, it appears that there was good reason for your suspicions about the nature of the original article. Please accept my apologies to you both for my comments to you. Apparently, I rode the wrong horse and my comments were uncalled for and out of line.
Dusty
My favorite sauce is derived from apples.
What is your favorite sauce?
All horses need to be rode.
The pick of the litter is always a toss up.
She was also left in a room crying, with her cell phone taken away, stripped down, in a foreign country and not able to communicate because she didn't know the language. If I was put in a similar situation I would be scared too.
It is a terribly awful story and that's why I posted it. Sure we will get over it but I don't want her to go back home thinking America is an awful place. She is sure happy to see the baby though but I know she will tell family in Lithuania just how it happened and with the size of the family back there, 40 cousins and aunts, uncles and so on it will be news. It will be news that stinks.
It reminds me a little when an old college friend got pulled over in Baja California by the Mexican Federales. He had to pay them $100 or so to be let go. He said he hadn't done anything wrong and I believed him because at that time everyone even the local news people were talking about how Americans were getting shook down in Baja.
I may yet give this story to the media along with a list of ideas that have popped up here in this thread.
It's always nice when you pick the right horse from the beginning ;)
Why in the world didn't you make arrangements to meet your aged grandmother when she exited the plane?
..or have an airline agent help her through customs.
If you went to ALL the trouble to get her over here, why in the world didn't you take extra precaution to get her off the plane with assistance?
Seems to me common sense would prevail in this situation.
Many of us are a bit skeptical that you didn't know or try to find out what resources you had when it came to assisting your grandmother.
Did you not even call airline authorities or custom agency to ask questions?
Or is it easier to blame someone once the 'incident' happens.
I can't imagine letting my aged grandmother travel without assistance or helps once she arrives.
We would really like the answers to these questions.
Hostage...simple question...
How old is your grandmother?
Then it's your fault. If you didn't stand there and demand they stop, then you are the wimp.
I am 5'2" and 115 pounds. When they started that cr@p on my 75-year-old mom, I let 'em have it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.