One of the most interesting assignments for Travelers Aid volunteers at Dulles International Airport is the International Arrivals Desk. People from all over the world enter the United States through Dulles, and many have an entourage of people waiting to pick them up. The area around the door where arriving passengers from overseas enter the airport is always crowded with people holding flowers, balloons and signs to welcome relatives and friends to the United States. And flowers and balloons are conveniently sold at the shop right in front of that area!

During one of my recent assignments, an African lady wearing a bright, long dress and matching turban appeared before my desk. I could tell by her accent she was from a French-speaking country in Africa. She told me her son was picking her up, but she didn’t know where to meet him. I asked for his phone number and called him. I explained where we were, and in a few minutes, there was a happy reunion between mother and son. He said he hadn’t seen his mother since six months prior when he visited her in Africa. The mother was particularly interested in coming to the United States because her son and his wife just had a baby and she was quite anxious to see her new grandchild.

Another young man was waiting for his brother, arriving on a Turkish Airlines flight from Ïstanbul. He told me he learned a Customs and Border Patrol agent had put his brother’s passport in an orange plastic box and sent the brother for what’s called secondary questioning. The brother was eventually released and allowed to enter the United States. But you can imagine the angst people experience when friends or relatives don’t exit the customs and immigration facility with the first or second burst of passengers arriving on that flight.

A young Australian boy living with his parents in Dublin had a similar experience. He was delayed for more than two hours, probably because several international flights had arrived at the same time, overwhelming the capacity of the customs inspection and immigration facility.

And then there was an elderly Indian lady in a beautiful sari. She had so many people meeting her with flowers and balloons, her children and grandchildren had to help carry them.

There was a woman from Colombia who spoke no English. I was able to call her relatives, who were in the airport parking lot. I found exactly where they were parked and walked with her to the spot. The traveler hadn’t seen her sisters in 15 years, and it was quite an emotional reunion.

Another reunion involved a woman arriving from Hungary. She took the transfer vehicle from the plane to the midfield customs facility instead of the main customs facility in the main terminal. As she approached my desk, she held out her cell phone. I took it and said, “Hello.” The person on the phone was her daughter who was anxiously awaiting her mother’s arrival. The daughter was waiting at the International Arrivals Desk. I told her I would take her mother over to the main terminal building. And, again, it was a tearfully joyous reunion.

In my last assignment at the airport I heard about an upcoming double reunion! A young woman was traveling to Vienna. She was going to meet her husband, who had traveled there the week before. It turned out that his luggage never got loaded onto his flight and was still at Dulles Airport. The young woman made sure that her husband’s luggage would be loaded onto her flight, so her husband would be having a double reunion, with her and with his luggage!

— Marvin Singer, a volunteer with Travelers Aid and a member of GT’s Globility Board