Caroline Todd comes home to her family on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011, after spending two years in a detention center for illegal immigrants in Louisiana. The family learned Wednesday that she would be coming home to stay. (Montgomery Advertiser, Amanda Sowards)
ATHENS — MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) The moments leading up to Caroline Todd’s surprise, and sudden, return home after more than two years of detainment were filled with a series of small, everyday occurrences.
John, a lively 10-year-old, and his older brother Brandon, who has become a teenager in her absence, sat absorbed in a television show and completely unaware that their mother was just miles away from their Montgomery home.
Their father, Thomas, stood on the porch waiting anxiously and periodically tearing up while talking about the absence of his wife and the painful uncertainty of their future that existed just days before this moment.
“I learned that miracles do happen. A husband and a wife who truly love each other can survive anything, and we never gave up hope,” Thomas said, overcome with emotion.
Minutes later, a “thud, thud, thud” could be heard as Brandon practiced soccer against the front door ‚Äî a violation of the house rules, as dad sternly reminded him. Still minutes later, the two brothers could be heard screaming, sending dad back into the house. Then, the dog got out of the backyard and had to be recaptured.
But those ordinary, unspectacular experiences of home are taking on new meaning in the Todd residence.
Caroline Todd, a 39-year-old native of Kenya who has been in the U.S. since 1990 and who married an American man in 1996, had exhausted the channels to stay in America and was scheduled to be deported no later than March 1.
Todd was convicted of two counts of perjury for incorrectly answering two questions on federal forms . One was an employment form and the other was part of her application for permanent residence. She has said the errors were made innocently.
Todd, who has no prior convictions, was sentenced to three years of probation. She was held at the LaSalle Detention Facility, a central Louisiana facility for detained immigrants, as she waited for either deportation or the return home.
The judge over her case denied her request to stay in the country, but Caroline Todd was released Thursday morning and allowed to return home to her family. It appears that travel documents needed from the Kenyan government never arrived, according to family friend Charlotte Robertson.
Caroline Todd hugs her sons Brandon (left) and John on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011, after spending two years in a detention center for illegal immigrants in Louisiana. The family learned Wednesday that she would be coming home to stay. (Montgomery Advertiser, Amanda Sowards)
Caroline Todd, whose Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church community rallied behind her, did not know until Thursday morning that she was going home. That means when she walked into her Forrest Hills neighborhood home Thursday evening, she had only known the news for a little more than 12 hours.
“It’s a miracle. Really, there are no other words. If there was any doubt (in God) at all, this should clear it up. He is faithful. We just have to patient, we have to hold on, and we have to believe,” Caroline Todd said shortly after being released Thursday morning.
When Caroline Todd embraced her family Thursday evening in their living room, it had been more than two years since she had physically touched any of them. As a detainee, she was only allowed to visit them with a plate of glass between them.
And to be sure, they hugged one another like loved ones who had not touched in years. The four held a tearful and tight group hug for several minutes after Advertisement
Caroline Todd quietly slipped through the front door and back into their lives.
“It’s like I’m in a dream,” she said. “I’m home.”
It did not take long for those simple, common moments of home life to pick back up. After the boys showed mom the trophies won through their various athletic endeavors, there was talk of what should be eaten for dinner and who would sign off on forms needed for school.
Now that their nightmarish experience is over, Caroline Todd will get her work permit and resume the effort to achieve U.S. citizenship but this time they will do so with the aid of an attorney. But for now, her more immediate plans include making after-school brownies and cupcakes for her children.
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