Day 272 - Death of an American

Sarah

GSO David wore two hats when he first arrived in Chisinau. He was the general services officer and the back-up consular officer. But the GSO work was more important initially. Starting up consular operations required that we have a secure location for visa applicants to come. We also were looking forward to the arrival of Sarah six months down the road. Sarah would also share two responsibilities, as consular officer and back-up general services officer. Because the American population in Moldova was very small, any of them who needed help from the embassy, a renewal of a passport, or assistance in some other way, could come to the embassy at any time. We didn't need official hours.

But it was clear that David was looking forward to the opening of consular operations. At one point, he set up appointments with Moldovan officials to learn what the processes would be in the event of the death of an American. I was hard on David - only in my thoughts, not in action or words - because I thought David was being unnecessarily pessimistic and ignoring the bigger issues - getting the embassy operating on a basis closer to normal. For example, David was very comfortable at improvising and making quick decisions. And those qualities were important in the early days. But as we got some semblance of order and process, I was determined that we would follow the regulations where we could and take steps to obtain waivers when we couldn't, instead of ignoring them.

I should have celebrated when David started looking toward getting the consular operation set up. But I didn't know that yet.

In addition to setting up appointments with Moldovan officials, David also ordered two adult coffins and two children's coffins. Again, I thought his enthusiasm for consular work was getting the better of him. But then Hank*, one of the American craftsmen, died. I learned of the death when Jim ran downstairs from his apartment to the floor where the Ambassador and Alex and I lived. It was early evening.  We had returned from dinner. Jim was breathless, still holding his phone, when he told us of Hank's death.

Hank was a electrician, in his 60's who had never been out of the U.S. before this trip. He hadn't been feeling well and the Fluor Daniel project manager had suggested he return to the U.S. But Hank had two reasons for remaining in Chisinau: he didn't want to give up the end of contract bonus if he stayed until the project ended, and he had a Moldovan girlfriend about 40 years younger than he was.

Hank had been at his girlfriend's apartment when he again felt ill, so he went outside for some fresh air. His girlfriend found him sitting on a bench next to the sidewalk. He had suffered a heart attack.

It was a Thursday evening. That meant we had until Saturday morning to get him ready to be shipped on the Air Moldova weekly flight west.

David

David's preliminary work getting to know the people who would prepare Hank's body for shipping was critical to our being able to meet that deadline. We learned lesson #1 very shortly: when ordering adult coffins to have on hand, just in case, order size large, not medium. Hank's boots had to be removed in order to fit him into the medium size we had on hand.

And there were still more problems. It was early summer. There were no refrigerated spaces to store the body and even after the body had been embalmed and sealed in the coffin, there were no air conditioned spaces to keep the coffin. The best the Moldovans could offer was an empty warehouse near the airport that could be kept dark to minimize the heat generated. David and Alex delivered the coffin to the warehouse and covered it with tarpaulins. That wasn't enough to eliminate the formaldehyde odor. Alex noticed that every Moldovan who entered the warehouse hugged the walls as they walked, keeping as far away from the coffin in the middle of the room as possible.

On Saturday morning, Alex and David and others delivered the coffin to the aircraft and discovered the opening used to load suitcases into the belly of the plane wasn't quite big enough for the coffin. There was an alternative, but that was luck, not planning. Lesson #2: investigate other transportation options.

No one was willing to take the used-just-once tarpaulins that covered the coffin for two days.

And lesson #3: I owed David an apology, even if I had never spoken my earlier thoughts aloud.