He met his wife to be, an American African girl, when she came to do six months diagnostic work as part of her medical training in the same hospital just up the road. I thought she was a sweetie. I love them both,

The wedding in Ohio was great. All his family came over from Nigeria in their splendid robes and her family were just fabulously kind and treated me as one of them. Sister George, as one of his aunts was called,  even took me to her church and there was singing and weaving and the Chaplain introduced me to the congregation and we all ate together and I had some great food I had never seen before.

And so they left for their honeymoon and I left for a long slow trip back through West Virginia playing golf and got back home eventually to Wales. Then I got a telephone call. He was back in Wales. Looking for some temporary work in the hospital.

Seems like they had arrived back from their honeymoon all loving and holding each others hands like you do when everything has gone so well. They came in via a flight from Canada. Passports were checked and a few questions were asked and the Immigration man saw they were both qualified doctors  and the States finds these quite useful and they were just going through the gates when the colleague of the guy who checked them out called them back. He had heard my friend refer to his wife. Now if he had said girlfriend then there was no problem, But wife. That is a no-no with your immigration folk.

So what do you do? He was barred entry and put on the very next flight back to Canada. His wife had no option but to stay to take up her new post in a hospital in two days time. She didn't want to remain but he insisted. It was hard because the whole thing only took half an hour. I can imagine it was quite moving too, seeing them there - unable to let go of each other and the immigration man forcing them apart.

Now why I say it was good was that a lawyer they hired managed to sort it out very easily and obtain the right forms and within eight weeks he was allowed to fly back and rejoin his wife. Not bad , huh?

I think it a bit unfair of them to remain upset and they both want to come back here to Wales where they were happy and everybody loved them. O.K we need doctors too. But c'mmon. She had  her training in the States so she owes her country something. Oh yes. Around a $100,000 dollars of debt for the training she paid for to get through medical school.