It’s not often that I help a grandmother fly from Israel to the US to attend a family wedding.
On Friday of last week, I heard from Jeremy Staiman, who designs my campaign literature.
His 91-year old mother, accompanied by Biji Dixon, her full-time aide, had tickets to fly from Israel to the United States on Thursday for her granddaughter’s wedding.
But there were visa problems for Ms. Dixon.
Could I write a letter on her behalf?
When the letter didn’t work, I asked Jackie Greenfield, my Constituent Director, to call Senator Ben Cardin’s office.
On Thursday, I received this email from Jeremy:
Yesterday morning we received word that Ms. Dixon’s visa request was again denied for the flight today. However, they then contacted us again with more specific instructions on how to fix the issues they had with the paperwork. My sister had the employment contract rewritten again, and hand-delivered to the embassy in Jerusalem (fortunately, my mother lives about a 5 minute walk away from there).
When we didn’t hear anything by the end of the day, we were forced to cancel her flight.
But the story did not end there. First thing this morning in Israel, we were notified that the visa request was approved. A ticket was repurchased, and I’m thrilled to report that they have now checked in at Ben Gurion Airport, and will soon be on their way to New York.
I have no idea what factors influenced what here. But clearly everyone putting forth their best efforts in every way possible has resulted in my 91-year-old mother being able to walk down the aisle at her granddaughter’s wedding. My brother and I will have the privilege of escorting her on that special walk, and I will be thinking all the while of how fortunate we are that so many people put in so much effort to allow it to happen.
I responded to Jeremy:
The Lord and the State Department Consular Division work in mysterious ways.
When I come for dinner in December [when I’m in Israel], I want to meet both your mother and Biji Dixon.
Jeremy replied, “It would be a pleasure!”
