A 72-year-old woman from the Solomon Islands who came to Japan to be at her daughter’s deathbed and was then unable to go home for two years amid the COVID-19 pandemic has finally returned to her home country.
Isabel Toosia and Barnabas Nunu, her 38-year-old son, visited Japan in February 2020 to see Cinderella Shirafuji, who had married a Japanese man and lived in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture. Cinderella died of cancer in May the same year. She was 34.
The Solomon Islands government required people returning to the country to be vaccinated twice against the coronavirus, but Toosia and Nunu could not receive the shots in Japan since they had entered the country with tourist visas.
Following a Chunichi Shimbun report on them, the prefectural and municipal governments allowed them to be vaccinated as an exception in July last year, but they were still unable to return because of lockdowns in a transit country on the route home.
After the Solomon Islands government relaxed conditions for entries into the country in November, they were finally able to obtain air tickets with the help of supporters.
Local support
On Jan. 26, they were at Chubu Airport in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, with Noboru Hamada, a 53-year-old tomato farmer from Toyohashi and his 50-year-old wife Akiko, who had supported the pair during their stay in Toyohashi.
The couple got acquainted with Toosia and Nunu through Cinderella’s husband, Kenichi, 44.
Seeing that they were at a loss as to what to do in Japan for an indefinite period of time, the Hamadas invited them to work at their farm in May of 2020. Akiko picked them up every morning at Kenichi’s house and they did farmwork and had meals together.
The four of them got along so well that they went out together, sang together and traveled to places like Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, and Mount Fuji.
Their motto was “life is beautiful.” Although there were difficulties, they still believed that life was wonderful.
Toosia often sang hymns at the Hamadas’ house. Singing the song “Jesus is My Best Friend,” she said, “Noboru and Akiko are my Jesus.”
Unexpected farewell
Toosia and Nunu were planning to leave Japan together from Chubu Airport on Jan. 26, but Toosia was unable to obtain a visa from a transit country by the morning of the flight.
The Hamadas kept telling Toosia that things would work out, and handed her an album with around 300 photographs they had taken together. Then they sat with her and looked through the album to ease her anxiety.
They talked of stories of their time together: The time Toosia took an eyesight test, and the time they ate ice cream at the foot of Mount Fuji.
When boarding time arrived, Toosia still didn’t have the visa, so she told Nunu to go back by himself. Looking at them, Akiko couldn’t help crying.
As Toosia saw Nunu off at the departure gate, tears streamed down her cheeks. “Why? I feel sad. I want to go back,” she said. The Hamadas hugged her tightly and wept together.
Sudden turn
Less than an hour later, Toosia got her visa. Her face brightened when Akiko suggested that they look for a flight she could get on. Luckily, she was able to reserve a late-night flight that departed from Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture.
Noboru had to work the following morning, so he hugged her and said goodbye in the Chubu Airport parking lot.
At 10:30 that evening, Toosia was at the departure gate of Kansai Airport.
“Thank you everyone. Life is beautiful after all,” she said and hugged Akiko again and again. Unlike that morning, they were now all smiles.
Noboru, who later saw the video of the scene, said, “I can’t stop crying, seeing her leaving with a smile. I’m so happy for her.”
“I’m filled with a sense of accomplishment, but I miss them,” Akiko said as she left the airport. “It was good that we could get to know them and I hope their time in Japan left them with happy memories.”
This section features topics and issues from the Chubu region covered by the Chunichi Shimbun. The original article was published Jan. 28.
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