Fort McMurray wildfire: Lack of passport keeps Newfoundland woman from son’s wedding in Jamaica

First the fire destroyed Kimberly Parson’s home in Fort McMurray, Alta. and then she had to flee from an oilsands site where she worked, but the topper for the Newfoundland woman is that she can’t attend her eldest son’s wedding in Jamaica without her passport.

The passport was one of the few belongings she had when she left her basement apartment in Fort McMurray earlier this month.

Parsons says after that, she had to return to work with a company that supplies coveralls for the oil industry and she left the passport in a room in the Noralta Bighorn Lodge work camp.

When the fire got too close and the site where she was working was evacuated, no one was allowed to return to the camp.

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Evacuation orders for many oilsands sites were lifted late Friday, but Parsons is now staying with her brother in Grande Cache and can’t get back to the camp for her passport.

READ MORE: Fort McMurray wildfire: Oilsands work camp destroyed as flames threaten other sites

Parsons says she’s already cancelled her ticket for Jamaica anyway, and will have to make do with pictures of the wedding, which is scheduled for Tuesday in Montego Bay.

“We’re all supposed to be in Jamaica but it’s not working out like that,” Parsons said. “It’s just got me killed that I can’t be there.”

Her younger son, who owned the home where she lived in Fort McMurray, also cancelled his ticket and is staying with her in Grande Cache.

READ MORE: Oil worker nervous as Fort McMurray wildfire moves north

The family, which hails from Wesleyville, NL, talked about postponing the wedding due to the stress of that everyone is under, but Parsons said she thought the ceremony should go ahead.

Her older son’s home in downtown Fort McMurray was spared, but he and his fiancee spent over $7,000 dollars in reservations to fly to Jamaica with their two sons.

“I told them if they want to go and get married to do it, this is their day.”

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Parsons is upset she and other workers got called back to work so soon after the Fort McMurray evacuation and while the area was still in danger. The stress has added up, she said, but at least everyone is alive and safe.

“It’s just so much to deal with, I don’t know.”