When Morag Davite heard her dad had taken ill last week, she boarded the first plane she could from her home in Rwanda to be with her elderly parents in Aberdeen.
As she was en route to Scotland, via Brussels, her 85-year-old father James Mackay’s health took a turn for the worse.
It was only as she finally touched down at Aberdeen that she learned her “kind, funny and proud” dad had died.
Morag is now in quarantine in the Sandman Hotel for 10 days, while her 88-year-old mum Louise grieves the sudden loss of her husband of 62 years at home alone.
Despite repeatedly testing negative for Covid, current guidelines do not allow her to isolate with her mum in Bridge of Don.
The doting daughter is now desperately pleading with the Scottish Government to consider making compassionate exceptions to the strict rules.
Dad’s sudden decline
Morag told us how James, a former policeman, suffered a fall a few weeks ago and contracted a lung infection as he was recovering.
She explained that her original plan was to travel from Rwanda to Aberdeen to help her mum take care of James as he got better.
Morag said: “Rwanda is on the red list for Scotland, but green for Belgium, so I flew to Brussels before coming here.
“I had to isolate for 10 days there, and had no idea my dad was going to take a turn for the worse.
“The plan was to go home to Bridge of Don, and I expected my dad to be there.
“I’d been in Belgium for four days when I found out dad had been taken into hospital and was getting very weak.”
Nurse phoned with tragic news
Under exemptions which allow people to travel to be with dying relatives, Morag was able to cut short her stay in Belgium to fly to Aberdeen.
She had travelled about 4,450 miles by the time she reached the city and spent more than £1,000 on flights.
Morag added: “On Saturday morning the hospital phoned mum and asked her to come in, and I was told I needed to get there urgently.
“I tested negative for Covid at the Brussels airport and flew from there on Sunday morning.”
The 58-year-old was able to keep in touch with her parents through nurses while her dad was being looked after at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
It was shortly after she landed that they broke the tragic news to her.
‘I should be with mum’
Morag, who has been double-vaccinated, added: “The nurses were so great with my mum, but now I should be at home with her helping her with everything.
“I’ve e-mailed the Scottish Government about my mum being at home, and I have had so many negative tests over the past few days that I had hoped I could isolate there.
“But I’ve been told I just have to wait my 10 days, it seems like a blanket policy.
“I’m sure there must be many others in this situation.”
Our graphic shows the distance Morag travelled to get home –
A Scottish Government spokesman offered sympathy for Morag’s “difficult situation” but offered little indication that the policy might be reviewed.
He said: “We have every sympathy with Ms Davite in this difficult situation.
“However, the rules around international travel are in place to limit the risk of importing new cases and variants and there are very limited exemptions to the quarantine rules.
“Overseas travellers are urged to be aware of the international travel restrictions in place.”
Full details on the hotel quarantine process are on the government’s website.
‘He was funny, kind and proud. And he was my daddy’
James Mackay enrolled in the Scots Guards as a young man and served three years with the regiment.
His links to the outfit meant a lot to him, and he was Secretary of the Scots Guards Association for many years later on in life.
It seemed a natural step to join the police when he left the forces and James spent 30 years as a bobby pounding the streets of Aberdeen – and making many friends along the way.
Morag said: “He loved being a soldier and he really suited being a policeman.
“He was always very correct, always well-dressed and he loved his uniform. He was a very proud man.
“He loved being a policeman and I loved being a policeman’s daughter, even if it meant I had to learn how to run fast at times!”
Both originally from Forfar, James and Louise got married in 1958.
Their first daughter Susan, who now lives in America, was born in 1960 and Morag came along two years later.
The family grew up in a police house in Northfield, before moving to Kittybrewster and then to Bridge of Don.
After leaving the police, James worked for the BBC as security in Aberdeen.
Morag said her dad “did a bit of everything” in the role, and was a “big part of the place”.
James made many happy memories with Louise as they spent time together on various holidays abroad throughout their married life.
Asked to sum up her dad, Morag said: “He was funny, kind, proud… And he was my daddy, and I loved him.”
Morag, who moved to Rwanda five years ago with her husband Giovanni, has sons Chris, 32, and 29-year-old Ottavio.
James was a role model to the lads throughout their lives.
Under normal circumstances, the whole family would be in Aberdeen just now.
But Morag is thankful to have had visits from several old friends at the gates of the hotel to keep her spirits up during her spell in isolation.
She plans to spend at least a month with her mum when her quarantine ends.