One month to the day since the 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal killing more than 8,000 people, Ted Godlin and Kelley Kaufman were thankful to be back safe and sound in their Village of Caroline home.
Their long, harrowing journey, which started out as a once-in-a-lifetime trip to see her son and grandson in Kathmandu, fortunately ended up with them back on American soil.
“I think about some of the people we met and I wonder what happened to them,” Kaufman said.
Kaufman’s one and only son, Matthew Simmons, met his future Japanese bride in a library in Arizona where both had been students. She wound up working for the United Nations which eventually led them to Kathmandu where they have been raising their 3-year-old son, Taisei Simmons.
Godlin encouraged his wife to take the trip to Nepal to see her son. The couple, seasoned travelers, had spent time in Japan when her son’s wife’s job had taken the young couple there.
Kaufman was thrilled while planning and packing.
“You know that Bob Seger song, ‘Kathmandu?’ she said. “I was so excited, I would play that song. Loud.”
They flew JetBlue to JFK in New York and Emirates Airline to Dubai where her son met them for the final leg to Kathmandu.
“Don’t get used to this luxury,” son teased mother in Dubai.
The Nepalese people threw out the monarchy some years ago and the country has yet to come up with a formal constitution. Many basic government functions we take for granted are nowhere to be seen in Nepal. Stray dogs roam the streets and trash piles up.
“But the people of Nepal are wonderful,” Kaufman said.
On the day of the earthquake, the group had gone to brunch.
They had just gotten into Matthew Simmons’ car when the quake started.
Bricks from parking walls and buildings came falling on the roof of the car crashing in the roof to about 1 inch above Godlin’s head. Bricks smashed into the hood of the car, the windshield and broke the windows.
“I looked down and had pieces of bricks in my lap,” Kaufman said.
They made the long uncertain journey to their hotel. Some of it they walked, some of it they rode in a car thanks to Kaufman’s daughter-in-law who persuaded a complete stranger to give them a lift.
“She’s got chutzpah,” Kaufman said.
Miku Watanabe has remained in Nepal, coordinating relief efforts through UNICEF.
“This is what she does,” said Kaufman. “And she is very good at it.”
Matthew Simmons and young Taisei also got out of Nepal and are back in the United States. They will be visiting in The Villages in a few days.
Godlin and Kaufman flew out of Kathmandu five days after the quake.
Their hotel had intermittent power thanks to a generator, but conditions had been quickly deteriorating. Aftershocks terrified everyone.
When they got on the plane at the Kathmandu airport, they sat on the tarmac for more than an hour.
“We weren’t really sure we were going to get out of there,” Godlin said. “There was that fear that they would call back the plane.”
When they made it back to JFK, they checked into a hotel.
“We slept for 12 hours straight,” Kaufman said.
With his wife still back in Nepal, Matthew Simmons is encouraging Americans not to forget the quake victims still struggling to rebuild their lives. Keep an eye on www.villages-news.com in the days to come for more on his story.
