I have to share this story about my brother-in-law Mick and the vacation from hell: my fondest memories of him are when he and Melinda and the three kids came to visit us many years ago when we were living in Korea. They arrived just as my then-husband was leaving for a trip back to the US. We didn’t know it, but they had brought with them both a 24-hour intestinal bug as well as head lice - it was the beginning of a very memorable trip.
That very day they arrived, we took their rental van for a trip to a museum, and on the way there their eldest child Angela threw up in the middle seat. We couldn’t do much about it until we got home, where we cleaned it up as best we could and left a pile of baking soda in the car in the hopes that it would keep the smell to a minimum (surprisingly, it worked pretty well). From there, we drove off to the Daemyung Resort (later renamed by us the Damien Resort, for reasons that will become apparent) in the mountains, where Mick’s family had arranged a stay at a timeshare - we were all pretty excited, as it was a hot, humid summer, and we were looking forward to swimming in the pool at the resort. Mick was doing all the driving (I had a 3-year old and was 6 months pregnant). At one point we got lost, and were stopped by a Korean soldier with a machine gun stepping out in front of our car with his hand up. Between his appearance and my limited Korean, we understood that we had inadvertently wandered too close to the DMZ, and would need to turn back. Mick was unfazed, and we eventually arrived at the resort, where we discovered some disturbing facts: the air conditioning wasn’t working (we were promised some fans); the bathing “towels” were the size of dish towels, and an age limit on the swimming pools meant none of the kids could go swimming there. What a let-down!
The 24-hour bug struck again - their middle child Tony, who had previously broken his arm, took his turn at throwing up, and in trying to avoid his front turned his head and threw up down his cast, which meant that THAT smell was going to stay with us. The promised fans were not in our rooms, so we had to chase them down. When we got them and opened the doors and windows to get the air flowing, loose wallpaper caught the breeze and made an eerie, whistling sound that was not only disturbing in its own right, but also upset Tony, who would cry every time he heard that noise. Needless to say, the doors and windows were kept closed, and everyone sweltered.
I managed to develop sciatica during this time, due to my pregnancy, and there were times when I could only crawl across our room at the resort. And somewhere in all this chaos, my 3-year-old daughter Melanie was jumping up and down on the couch, slipped off, banged her jaw on the coffee table and bit through her tongue. After 45 minutes of trying to stop the bleeding, I finally took her to the emergency room, where we were told she would have to have stitches. My daughter was terrified and in tears. In the end, the doctor said she wouldn't need stitches, but I remember that, for a long time, she would eat only ramen because it was soft and was guaranteed not to hurt her tongue.
On our last day there, their youngest child Monica got the bug, did not make it to the bathroom in time, and all those “towels” were insufficient for the cleanup task - we had to ask for more towels. As the cherry on top, their family discovered that although they had gone through the head lice treatment at home due to an outbreak at their school, the lice had survived, and now they all had to have their hair cut short, and I had to learn the Korean words for “head lice” (I remember the translation to this day!) so we could find the proper shampoo for them to use. The shampoo bottle looked like a Raid bottle, with pictures of dead insects all over it - very reassuring!
By that time, we had given up on the resort and decided to just go back to Seoul. Mick continued to chauffeur us around without complaint, and we went to a local amusement park and had a very nice day. Driving home on the freeway, he was driving over the speed limit in the fast lane when a Korean police officer parked in the median stepped in front of our car with his hand up. His English was not very good, and I had instructed Mick to play a dumb American who understood no Korean. After multiple attempts, the officer finally gave up trying to communicate and just waved us on.
We had another enjoyable day in the Seoul area, and then needed to pack up to go back to the US (my daughter and I were returning for a visit). That afternoon, with the dishwasher, washer, and dryer running, we blew a fuse, which was not readily replaceable, and so we ended up having to pack wet clothes for our trip home (they would have become moldy in our absence). It seemed a fitting end to the vacation!
Throughout it all, Mick maintained his equilibrium and his sense of humor - I don’t think any of the adventures fazed him, and years later we would still laugh about that trip, and talk about how it seemed everything that could go wrong DID go wrong, although the silver lining was that our family never got either the intestinal bug or the head lice! I hope he’s still having wonderful adventures in the great beyond, and creating new stories to laugh about.
I also hope that his family is treasuring the many memories they made and shared with Mick, and finding serenity in those memories. Love to you all!
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