'Kindness of strangers' helps stranded elderly couple return home from cruise

It wasn't even 6:00 AM on Monday, and retired cop John Prins climbed into his car and headed to LAX Airport to help an elderly couple he had never met. Aware that two airport workers had tested positive for the coronavirus, Prins donned protective gloves and a mask, clutched his homemade sign with the names Jim & Cathy Lee, and entered the deserted terminal, where he waited 45 minutes.

Getting them home

How do an 87- and an 89-year-old get home from Freemantle, Australia? That was the question posed by the Lees' anxious daughter, 12,000 miles away in Ottawa, Canada.

Her parents were forced to cut short their four-month world cruise, that was supposed to return them to Ft Lauderdale, after all cruise lines decided to suspend operations over the coronavirus and get passengers home from the nearest ports. In this case the nearest port was on the other wide of the world.

Cathy, 87, has a lung disorder. Her husband Jim, 89, has limited mobility. They were high school sweethearts a long time ago, then went their separate ways, later marrying 20 years ago after Cathy’s first husband died.

Deb Kinder, the couple's daughter, didn’t know how or if her parents could make the trip home. “I felt airports and planes were a source of spread and it’s not really good when people their age get this virus,” she said. Never having traveled internationally, Kinder lay awake at night trying to decide what to do, even considering flying to Australia.

She turned to Cruise Critic, a popular website for cruise enthusiasts. Passengers on her parents’ cruise ship, Holland America’s Amsterdam, had been posting the latest news about their Grand Voyage’s premature end. Kinder decided to ask for help, starting her own thread on how to get her parents back to Florida. With 750 posts and 55,000 views, it turned into a world-wide expression of the kindness of strangers. “It was astonishing. My faith in humanity has been somewhat restored,” she said. “That thread certainly warmed my heart.”

Kinder needed to get her mom home. “I do love her for sure. I’m adopted. She 'picked' me and took excellent care of me, and now it is my turn to do the same for her,” she wrote.

A community of helpful cruisers

In 10 days Kinder’s post grew to 30 pages. Passengers on the ship and followers around the world were offering ideas and help.

Someone on the ship made contact with the parents. Others suggested airlines and flight routes home. The couple was put on 30 hours of flights from Perth to Sydney to Los Angeles to Tampa. (They live in Sarasota, Florida.) Holland America took care of the air arrangements and hasn’t sent them a bill.

“They are the most amazing group of people. All of the cheerleaders, all the people who were giving me information, the people doing play-by-play with the flights,” Kinder said. "Everybody was just so helpful. They made what would have been a very scary and difficult situation a hundred times better just by being there.”

A stranger steps in

John Prins lives 30 minutes from LAX and was following along. After retiring from 30 years on a police force near LA, Prins worked for seven years as a security officer on Holland America ships. It was in his nature to help people. “I figured the least I could do was offer some assistance because no one else would be waiting for them when they arrived,” he said.

Prins was even willing to take the couple to a hotel if necessary and pick them up again the next day. “When I read this whole saga from the beginning, I felt bad for these people. I knew the flights were long, they were going to be dead tired. I knew there was going to be nobody else waiting for them out there. So, all that combined was my main reason for doing it,” he said.

He alerted the hundreds of followers watching every new post on the thread that he was at the airport waiting. Jim came out first in a wheelchair followed by Cathy using Jim’s walker. They spotted Prins and his sign. If it weren’t for Prins, the couple would have had no help at the airport other than one wheelchair assistant.

Jim and Cathy still had to make it from LAX to Tampa and people monitoring the thread already knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Delta was canceling domestic flights, including the one Jim and Cathy were on. Prins took them to one domestic terminal only to find out Delta had closed it and was operating out of yet another terminal. He took them there and called Kinder so she could speak with her parents.

At the new terminal Delta booked them to Tampa via Atlanta. Prins let followers on the board know and he posted the picture everyone was waiting for. Jim and Cathy had made it safely to the United States. Posters were tracking the parents’ flights home, listening to the air traffic control audio, and popping more than virtual Champagne corks when they safely arrived.

"Seasick Sailor" from Idaho commented to Prins, “You are my hero. Your compassion has given me a renewed love for our community.”

“A lot of people have thanked me. I personally don’t see it as a big thing,” Prins said. My goal was just to help these folks get back home to Tampa and then a reunion with their daughter.”

For Prins, the goodbye at LAX was all the thanks he needed. “I had surgical gloves on. I shook his hand first. I told her I’m glad we got you on your way. She grabbed my hand and wouldn’t let go for several seconds. I thought that was kind of nice,” he said.

For Cathy Lee, Prins made the difference. “He was terrific. We have really a lot of people to thank,” she said once safely home in Florida.

Kinder was grateful. “Who does that for somebody, really? In such times like this for somebody to offer to do that for somebody they don’t even know, it just blows my mind,” she said.

Would they take another cruise again? Jim says in a heartbeat. Cathy is not so sure. When it was all over, Cathy Lee confessed, “I never thought I’d ever, ever get home.” But she did, with the help of strangers around the world.

Kinder told her new online friends she will pay it forward. “There is much kindness in the world. We are all going to need to hang on to that over this rough time,” she said. “There are always silver linings even in awful situations. Thanks everyone for being a silver lining.”