The kindness of strangers: she bought a new sim card for my mum and installed it on her phone

The Guardian

13-07-2025

One week before I was due to fly to Sweden to see my son get married, I got a frantic, jumbled message from Mum. My elderly parents were desperate to attend the big wedding but as they were both in their 80s, they'd decided it would be more comfortable to take a cruise ship from Australia to Europe than to fly. They'd set off two months before the rest of us.
Mum's message asked me to call her. 'We're being thrown off the ship,' she wrote. 'Your father's in an ambulance – I think it's pneumonia. We're somewhere in Spain.'
They were admitted to a tiny hospital in a small place called Los Álamos, near Málaga. Mum didn't have data on her phone, nor did she know how to get an e-sim or a new sim card.
The only time I would hear from her was when she managed to get on to the patchy hospital wifi.
Last we'd spoken, she'd told me Dad was in a critical condition. But because the hospital staff spoke very limited English, they hadn't been able to communicate anything else, so Mum didn't really understand what was going on – only that she wasn't allowed to see him.
She was beside herself with stress.
I quickly moved the date of my flight forward to go and find them. Before I left, unable to get on to Mum to let her know I was coming, I had an idea. I found a Facebook group called Expats Málaga and joined, posting there that my father was in the local hospital and my mother doesn't speak Spanish. Would someone be able to visit and let her know her daughter is on her way from Australia?
A wonderful lady named Elizabeth responded straight away to say she lived near the hospital and would be happy to go. Mum later told me that a very tall, stylish blond woman popped her head into the hospital waiting room and said: 'Excuse me, are you Maureen? My name's Elizabeth. Your daughter sent me.'
Mum said she immediately burst into tears. She told Elizabeth she just wanted to speak to her children but couldn't get her phone to work. So in 44C heat – Spain was having a horrendous heatwave – Elizabeth went and bought a new sim card for my mum and installed it on her phone. She spoke to the nurses and got a positive update on my dad's health, which she relayed to Mum.
I never got to meet Elizabeth, but we had beautiful correspondence – I wrote her a very heartfelt message saying how much I appreciated her kindness and support.
I eventually got to Spain, and Mum and I had a week together in the hospital helping Dad get better. He recovered and my parents made it to the wedding, which was beautiful. The ridiculous thing is, it's two years later, and guess what they're doing? Going on another cruise.
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