ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – A Roanoke County couple landed for a church trip in Israel as conflict was unfolding.
Annette and Quigg Lawrence had been planning a trip to Israel for years. In fact, this was a trip originally planned back in 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plan was to meet up with more than 30 people from four different countries in Israel over the weekend.
The trip technically started Monday, but the Roanoke County couple wanted to get there a couple of days ahead so they could greet their friends when they arrived.
When they took off for Tell Aviv, the country was normal. When they arrived, the war had broken out.
“Almost I couldn’t believe it. It was almost like a nightmare. Like, ‘Oh, that’s not true. That’s not true.’ It’s Israel. I’ve been in Israel twice; this isn’t happening,” Lawrence said.
At the time, there were no flights for them to catch home. They ended up traveling to their hotel and had dinner. After eating, they stepped outside and heard two large explosions.
“When it shook our hotel and shook the windows, there was pandemonium and screaming. Everybody just came unglued,” Lawrence said. “I immediately got on our WhatsApp and I said, ‘Cancel your flights; do not come.”
Luckily, the other people on their trip had their flights canceled. It was now a matter of the Annette and Quigg getting out of the country.
The couple along with dozens of other hotel guests were sheltering in a bunker Saturday night following the explosions.
They decided to call their grandkids, thinking the worst could happen.
“They knew what was happening. I was like, ‘Well, you can have my guitar. You can have my banjo, but it wasn’t really about things. It was about the people we love the most. Just saying, ‘Hey, if this thing goes south, we love you,” Lawrence said.
Going to bed Saturday night was tough. Helicopters, jets and the sounds of missiles flying by and exploding kept the couple up.
On Sunday, it was quiet though. They saw locals drinking their morning coffee at cafes as if nothing was happening.
Through another couple with them, the Lawrences were able to get a flight home on Monday. It would not be a quick journey though, and it still wasn’t a sure thing for them to get out of Israel.
“We had seen online photographs of bombs in the air over the airport. We didn’t know if it was photoshopped, was it real? It felt real,” Lawrence said.
From Tell Aviv to Addis Ababa to Dublin to Chicago to Roanoke, the couple spent more than 40 hours flying. Not to mention their car was still in Raleigh from when they left.
When they arrived home, they were greeted with the warm embrace of their grandkids. It was a moment at one point during their trip they never thought they’d have again.
“I was chatting to somebody and then I feel some little person hugging my leg and it was my grandkids and then they all started to hug us. It just made my heart so happy,” Lawrence said.