Last week we shared the story of Leonard Mawora, the international business student at Memorial University, who was unable to go home because he had accidentally misplaced his travel papers in a duffel bag that he had returned to a St. John’s store as he was preparing to return home to visit his mother in Zimbabwe for Christmas.
No papers meant no family Christmas back home.
And Mawora was feeling pretty glum.
Mawora now has an open invitation to family gatherings at Day’s home. (Jeremy Eaton/CBC)
CBC News’ Jeremy Eaton shared Mawora’s plight, which touched Canadians across the country, including Newfoundland and Labrador native Rick Mercer, the well-known, actor, political satirist, author and television personality.
In a tweet, Mercer called on his fellow Islanders to take a good hard look through any bags they might have brought recently because it was time for “a social media Christmas miracle.”
On Saturday night, as Mawora was buying groceries and resigning himself to the fact that he wasn’t going to Zimbabwe to see his mother anytime soon, April Day was home in St. John’s.
“As soon as I sit down, then I got a call from her, saying, like, ‘I have your passport,'” Mawora told CBC News.
“I just couldn’t believe it at first. It took me some time.… At least now I can go see my family. I’m so happy.”
The two made arrangements to meet Sunday and the CBC’s Eaton recorded what happened.
Day told CBC she regrets not looking in the bag sooner — she says she’d heard about Mawora’s plight but didn’t know the details of the bag.
All’s well that ends–and begins–well.
Mawora arrived home on Christmas Day and Day says he has an open invitation to her family gatherings (see photo above) in the future.
“When he comes home, we will be here waiting for him to get off the plane, with a big a ‘Welcome home’ sign and we’ll have Christmas dinner the next day and invite him to our house,” she told NTV’s David Salter.
With files from CBC News (Jeremy Eaton, Daniel MacEachern), CTV (Ben Cousins–NTV/David Salter)
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