Flipping flipping timing! (Terminally ill mother)

[Bonnie151]

I could just scream right now, but I know if I start I just won't stop. A few days ago my mother went into hospice homecare in the States. She doesn't have a specific terminal illness, her batteries are just wearing out. At the time, I was told that her heart was strong, lungs fine, kidneys fine etc, but that she was sleeping an awful lot and not improving. We thought we were looking at a few months and because my passport was up for renewal in May, I made the decision to send it off just now so that I would have it up to date for whenever I needed to fly over at short notice.

In the past 24 hours she has started to rapidly decline, as in I need to go over NOW if I want to be there before she passes. And I don't have a passport!!! I've phoned the Passport Office to see it it can just be returned to me as it hasn't expired, or whether I can upgrade to the same day turnaround service, but aaaarrrgggghhhh!

I know I can't do anything until they phone back but honestly - talk about the worst decision ever made!

 

[natalielongstaff]

Oh NO i hope that you get your passport back asap so you can get a flight to see your mum xx

 

[Muscateer]

Oh no how awful for you. Hopefully you either get the passport back or you can go to the passport office and do the passport while you wait service.

Fingers crossed

 

[Pinky166]

Oh no how awful. I hope you manage to get your passport sorted asap.

 

[mandymouse]

Thinking of you, I hope you get your passport sorted out soon hun

 

[florida sun]

So sorry to hear this, I do hope you manage to get your passport back soon

 

[wicket2005]

Heck, hope it gets sorted quickly. Remember about your ESTA as well.

 

[kristieuk]

Really hope you get this sorted quickly. If it is any comfort, we had dd's new passport within 4 days of us sending off the application, so you may have it very soon. But maybe give the passport office a call and see if there is anything they can do to help in these circumstances.

So sorry to hear your sad news btw, hope all will be ok

 

[Bonnie151]

Thanks everyone. The Glasgow office doesn't open until 9:00 tomorrow morning so I won't be able to speak to anyone until then, but I'm hoping that if they can't get me onto the same day turnaround (when I phoned last week, there was a week's wait for an appointment so didn't think it'd be much slower just doing it through the post office!) that they'll let me just collect the old one - it's not as though it's no longer valid!

Fortunately I have dual citizenship and so don't need to worry about doing the ESTA application. I had DH complete it for himself though as speaking to the ILs, they have said they can take the kids for a couple of days if DH wants to fly over for the funeral.

I just can't believe my timing. A week ago my mother was holding her own - frail, yes, but I was assured nothing was imminent. 24 hours after I submit my passport and she's failing faster than her home help can believe.

 

[orlandothebeagle]

I hope you hit jackpot and get someone really nice and helpfull tom, I will keep fingers crossed for you.

 

[Tinks1984]

How terrible You'd have never known that this would happen though and you thought you were doing to correct thing for the coming months

I do hope they sort it for you ASAP in the morning and you can get yourself over to see your Mum. Thoughts are with you all and I hope your Mum improves and stays with you at least until you arrive to be with her

 

[buzz for boys]

Really hope you can get something sorted surely they set aside some appointments for emergencys???
really do hope that you get all the help you need x x x

 

[Jets fan]

How terrible, however am very sure that the passport office will help you as they must get emergencies. Maybe you can call the nursing home and get them to put the phone to her ear so that you can tell her you are on your way, although she may not acknowledge you, I'm very sure that she'll understand and it may give her that extra bit of energy to wait for you.

I hope that everything works out OK for you.

Tina

 

[Ware Bears]

 

[wilma-bride]

Hope you get your passport soon

 

[wils]

I'm sorry about your troubles - hope the passport office can help you out

 

[fizz13]

Poor you, why life has to throw us these stupid things I don't know! Best laid plans and all that! Really hope you manage to get it sorted today

 

[fav_is_tink]

So sorry to hear your sad news.

I hope you manage to get your passport back soon

 

[Bonnie151]

Well, we're all going on a roadtrip to Durham tomorrow!

The girl in the Glasgow office was simply AWFUL. She kept saying, "And more bad news is XXX". She told me (correctly) that despite what the general helpline told me, my passport could be sent to any of the regional offices and that if it were sent to Glasgow, they would just forward it onto another office because they receive mail but don't do any processing of renewals. She said there was no way for me to know where the passport would end up and that usually takes 7-10 days for it to land somewhere and be put on the system. Then she said that once it was logged, I couldn't just get it sent back to me, it would need to be processed and that could take another 3-10 days. I *could* upgrade to a fast track but would need a fax from the hospice to confirm my mother was passing away (not a problem but read on).Awful, simply awful.

So not being the giving up type, I phoned the post office to see if they could track it and they told me that it had been sent to the Durham office on Saturday morning and that Durham should receive it sometime today. I was getting a bit weepy at this point, so DH took over and phoned Durham. He spoke to a wonderful guy who immediately said that there was no problem couriering the passport back to us unrenewed as soon as it was logged on the system and for us to keep phoning back to see if it had been logged.

We kept phoning, with no luck until half an hour ago when I spoke to another wonderful person who tried to trace it a few ways and found that it had been logged with a DIFFERENT reference number! She said it was now too late to courier it back to me for it to arrive tomorrow but that she could upgrade it and have it renewed today and couriered tomorrow morning (arrival Wed) or we could collect it.

We're going with the collection as it gets me over a day earlier. I spoke to my mother's home help this morning and yesterday her doctor estimated that she had another 3-4 days so the sooner I get over, the better.

Thanks to everyone for your concern and positive thoughts!

 

[Dimplenose]

It pays to be persistant.

I hope everything else goes smoothly for you.