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SHANGHAI – Emsley Helms hugged her father for the last time in 2011. She was dropped off at the airport after celebrating Thanksgiving in 2019. He boarded a flight back home to Shanghai, where he had lived for nearly a decade.
“None of us expected to see him three years later,” Heims said.
Helm’s father had planned to visit for her sister’s birthday in March 2020, but that trip was postponed due to the pandemic. The family has since tried to reschedule the trip, but the flights have continued to be cancelled.
“The flight my father was trying to book was canceled four times,” she said. If there are positive cases on flights back to China, the flight is canceled or delayed.
The cancellations created a snowball effect and eventually increased ticket prices, Heims said. Before the outbreak, her father visited Utah every four months, a roughly $700 visit.
“The flights are now like $15,000, on average,” Helms said. “Sometimes they’re $11,000, sometimes they’re $20,000. And if you book it, there is no guarantee that you will get your money back if the flight is cancelled.”
She is sharing her story so that other families with loved ones in China know they are not alone. As her family approaches 1,000 days of not being able to see their father, she hopes the COVID-19 travel restrictions will be lifted soon.
“I also hope airlines realize what these price hikes are doing and that families can’t afford each other,” Helms said. “It’s the same for government affairs or people in government to take notice and take proactive steps to reunite families.”
For now, the family has to resort to FaceTime calls to connect with their father, but they’re praying they’ll be able to meet in person next.
“It’s different when you talk on FaceTime and see him in person,” Helms said. “I miss having him physically in front of me, being able to hug him and have him hug me back.”
“I miss the hug so much,” she said.
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Ashley MoserAshley Moser joined KSL in January 2016. She anchors KSL 5 Live at 5 with Mike Herrick and reports for KSL 5 News at 10.
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