A Wagga woman is all smiles after her husband managed a lucky escape home after a year stranded in India.
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When Darly Johnson bid her husband Johnson Mamalassery farewell in December 2019, the full-time nurse never expected his three-month trip to visit family in India would turn into a 17-month-long separation.
One day before he was due to fly home in March 2020 however, all flights were suspended, and the journalist has been stuck until now.
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This month, the family avoided a similar catastrophe, managing to get a flight days before a devastating second coronavirus wave saw Australia once again suspend incoming flights from India.
Mrs Johnson, at home in Estella where the couple have lived with their two daughters since 2014, was thrilled they got him out in time.
"I have been so relaxed and happy since he got on the flight," Mrs Johnson said. "It's been really hard, it's been one year and four months without him."
Speaking from hotel quarantine in Melbourne, Mr Mamalassery said: "Really, I thank God."
"Mine was one of the last flights to Australia from India, if I didn't get it I would be stranded there for maybe another six months or more."
The relief comes after a mammoth effort to get Mr Mamalassery home. Even after he was accepted for DFAT repatriation, the family faced a series of crushing disappointments.
"We tried to book the ticket four times, but unfortunately each time halfway through the application all the tickets had sold out," Mrs Johnson said.
"It was heartbreaking, the last time we tried I was booking the ticket and my youngest daughter, she was jumping behind me shouting 'we got it!'. Then we missed it. We were really disappointed."
Mr Mamalassery said he was stranded.
"Everyday I would contact the consulate and the travel agency but unfortunately I couldn't get any ticket to Australia," he said. "It was incredibly painful."
This month, the family secured a commercial flight but not without a heart-stopping few days leading up to take-off.
As they watched COVID cases soar to their now-dizzying peaks of over 300,000 cases a day, the ticket hadn't yet come through.
"Two days before his travel we had received his itinerary for Dubai to Melbourne but we hadn't received the itinerary for Kochi [in South India] to Dubai," Mrs Johnson said.
"That was worrying, wondering if he would get it or not, if they would cancel the flight or not."
It wasn't until the wheels left the tarmac on April 22 that she allowed herself a sigh of relief, with her husband due home on May 7.
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