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FEBRUARY 10-16, 2022 | LOCALLY OWNED & INDEPENDENT | FREE!
Joseph Darlington, 10, was at Dubbo Regional Airport with a homemade sign to welcome his uncle and aunt and a couple of new cousins he’d never met because of Covid travel restrictions. PHOTO: DUBBO PHOTO NEWS
GERMAN VALENTINE GIFT By JOHN RYAN WHEN Dubbo’s Kim Darlington saw two of her grandchildren for the first time when they touched down at the city’s airport, she said it was an incredibly emotional moment. Her son Preston was working in Germany when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and has been unable to get home for more than two years. And his parents couldn’t jump on a plane to visit him during a crucial few years of his life. “We haven’t been able to get to see Preston and Sarah and the little ones for a long time, we’ve missed their wedding, the birth
of their children,” Mrs Darlington told Dubbo Photo News as she met her grandkids as they got off the plane. “Now we’re all reunited after the dramas of Covid.” She said it was great to see not only her son and his family, but for her Dubbo grandchildren to meet their cousins for the very first time. “Ecstatic, yep, we’re finally all together after all the trials and tribulations,” she said, remarking she was worried right up until the last minute after so many previous travel plans were thwarted by changing Covid lockdowns or restrictions. She said the stress was profound.
“Always, it’s always in the back of your mind, the uncertainty has been relentless. “This is my Valentine’s Day present – every day is a good day when you’re all together Preston Darlington has been working in Germany as a carpenter and doing some travelling with his German wife, Sarah, based in the country’s Southwest, around Frankfurt. “It’s been pretty tough, for the kids mostly, having to take them out of school and with the weather, it’s so cold you’re pretty restricted with your outdoor activities so it’s been a battle trying to keep the kids busy every day,” Mr
Darlington said. After his family missed their wedding and the births, the couple were constantly worried a new lockdown would be called on the eve of their trip to Australia “Of course, I mean, you’re reading the newspapers from Australia and comparing that to what the European Parliament is putting together and you make your own narrative between the two, that’s been our life for the last two years anyway, our travel got knocked on the head so many times so we sort of didn’t believe it until we were sitting in the aeroplane and we were going over how many times we’ve planned this.”
He said the feeling when they finally touched down in Dubbo was amazing. “Pretty surreal, the kids meeting their cousins, it’s unbelievable, we’re pretty excited to see how those relationships are going to grow,” he said, remarking on the fact that he married his Valentine while stranded in another country. “I mean, it’s just a shame that in the last two years so much in our life has happened and my parents couldn’t be there,” he said. “It’s pretty emotional when your parents have to see all that through a screen, it’s a bit hard on both sides so it’s good to finally be here.”
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