‘It’s devastating’: Cross-border couples separated for months due to travel restrictions

“We thought ‘OK, now this won’t go on forever. It was supposed to be over in early or late April or May,” she told CTVNews.ca during a telephone interview on Tuesday. “We thought ‘just hold tight.’”

Before the novel coronavirus outbreak upended their lives, they had planned to marry in Indiana before Higgins would move to Detroit, which is only a 45-minute drive from Chatham. She said, that way they would still be close to each other while her daughter finishes high school in Chatham.

When the border closure was extended last month until May 21, Walker said they realized they may be separated for longer than they initially expected. And on Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government is in talks with the U.S. to have their shared border closed for another month.

The thought of waiting another month to marry her fiance was enough to convince Walker to drive to Pearson International Airport in Toronto on Wednesday to try and board a plane to the States.

“It’s devastating,” she said. “You wait your whole life to meet the person that you want to marry and in a time of crisis when all of Canada is being told to hunker down with your families and ride this out and stay home and that option was ripped away from us.”

Walker said she was concerned she wouldn’t be allowed to cross because she isn’t considered his immediate family in the eyes of the law as they’re not yet married nor have they been living together.

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