Life is always about journeys

My apologies to you, dear reader, for a spot of personal indulgence.  But today, at 11.30 UK time, give or take the vagaries of commercial air transport, I shall be aboard Virgin Atlantic’s flight VS007 en route for Los Angeles.  This flight, and the internal flight tomorrow from LAX to Phoenix, represent the start of a wonderful new journey, literally as well as figuratively.

For in my passport will be an immigrant visa issued by the US Embassy in London allowing me the right of entry into the USA and the right to remain as a permanent resident once my Jeannie and I are married, which will be happening soon.

The United States gets a lot of stick from all quarters, indeed I would be the first to say that voters on both sides of the Atlantic have lost sight of the fundamental need for fairness in society.  But in great democratic countries, the people always have the ultimate say.

So I am incredibly grateful to have been born, too many years ago!, in the great Great Britain and now have the opportunity to settle down for probably the last phase of my life in another great country, America.

I think it is appropriate to publish the words of a recent letter that was sent to the US Embassy in London if only as a reminder of the nobility of purpose of the great democratic countries of this world.

Shortly after 9am this Tuesday morning, my K1 visa application was approved and, thus, a rather long journey came to a conclusion. To have a new start in life is always wonderful. To have a new start in life at the age of nearly 66 is nothing short of a miracle.

Jean Burch, the woman that I shall be marrying in the Episcopal church in Payson, AZ on the 20^th November is the woman that I have been journeying towards all my life. The ancient poet Rumi wrote, some 800 years ago, the following, “The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.”

From those words, you will understand what it has meant to meet my Jeannie, a loyal American for nearly 30 years but, like me, born a Londoner; indeed we were born just 23 miles apart.

However the point of this letter is to say a very big ‘thank you’. Not only for representing a free country that welcomes such immigrants as me, but for the very courteous way that I was treated this morning. Please let your visa staff know that what may be for them just another day’s work is also part of a gift that is truly life-changing.

I will do my utmost to be a good and productive member of my new community in Payson and, in time, a loyal citizen of your country.

Thank you America.

By Paul Handover

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