January 29, 2010
Jasper mom anxiously waited for news from daughter on mission trip in Haiti
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
As Eileen Wright talks about her daughter’s harrowing visit to Haiti, her voice is filled with a mixture of pride and fear.
Thirty-four-year-old Aundrea Ludlow was on a medical mission trip when the Jan. 12 earthquake hit near Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital. (Related: Experience in Haiti filled with ‘God moments’ for area nurse)
“I got very nervous,” Eileen remembers. “I didn’t know what to think or what to do. The next day someone sent a text ‘we are OK,’ but you question ‘was that really from them?’
“The next few days were very anxious, and then on Friday I got a text ‘we are trying to get out ASAP.’ That’s when we knew they were trying to get out.”
The mother continues, “On Friday they went to the airport at 6 in the morning, and a C-130 cargo plane arrived. The pilot asked her, ‘Do you want to go home?’ and she said, ‘In the worst way.’ He could only take 50, and he took the children and the injured first. She was the last one to get on the plane.
“She didn’t know where they were going, and after two hours in the air, she asked and was told ‘Miami.’ When they landed, the doors opened and someone yelled ‘fire.’ The engines were on fire. There was screaming as the children and the injured were helped off.”
Eileen is a parishioner at Holy Family Church in Jasper. She said while her daughter was in Haiti “so many people called us, and we were on so many prayer lists.”
When her daughter returned home, Eileen said, “All I could do was cry.”
Of Aundrea, she says, “She’s a very caring person,” adding, “I didn’t want her to go this time. I had a funny feeling about it.”