A 72-year-old woman from the Solomon Islands who came to Japan to be at her daughter’s deathbed and was then unable to go home for two years amid the COVID-19 pandemic has finally returned to her home country.

Isabel Toosia and Barnabas Nunu, her 38-year-old son, visited Japan in February 2020 to see Cinderella Shirafuji, who had married a Japanese man and lived in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture. Cinderella died of cancer in May the same year. She was 34.

Isabel Toosia bids farewell to one of her supporters at Kansai International Airport on Jan. 26. | CHUNICHI SHIMBUN
Isabel Toosia bids farewell to one of her supporters at Kansai International Airport on Jan. 26. | CHUNICHI SHIMBUN