The in-laws of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe made fun of the fact that their son’s house had to be evacuated because it was in a “terrible” state, and said they hoped to see their sister-in-law on the weekend.
At BBC Breakfast, John Ratcliffe described Richard’s son’s home as “appalling”, to which his wife, Barbara, responded: “It is, but if you can think about it, it was a three-bedroom apartment like Nazanin’s. was and she “d just had a baby in it. Well, that baby is grown. “
They said Nazanin, Richard and their daughter Gabriella would stay for a few days in the Foreign Ministry’s accommodation – their own home is full of campaign materials and Gabriella’s toys – before spending time with another family on the weekend.
Next Sunday, Gabriella will give her mother a Mother’s Day card for the first time in her life, said Richard Ratcliffe.
He said the seven-year-old, who does not remember her mother as a free woman, had all her craft equipment ready to make her. Three years ago, he himself placed a card in 155 flowerbeds – one for each week his wife was in prison – outside the Iranian embassy in London.
It is a modest ambition for a family to be separated by Nazanin’s six-year false detention in Iran, but Ratcliffe said it was normal what the family demanded.
“We can not take back the time that has passed. But we do not live in the past in the future,” he said. “We take it one day at a time. I think it will be the beginning of a new life, a normal life and hopefully a happy family, with all the buttons and all the normal struggles we had before.
The first thing Nazanin said she wanted him to do for her on her way home was to make her a cup of tea, he said. “So we’ll do that,” he said, adding that while she was drinking it, she could monitor her apartment a bit. “I think actually we looked at the house and it needs a little tidying up so it can be a little tidy, maybe run by mom.”
Clearly lurking in the back of his head, however, was the awareness that normal life is not an easy thing to recover from after the extraordinary experiences the family has had.
“We are both a bit battered in our own way, and that will not play out today, but it will manifest in different ways,” he said. “I’m not pulling over now, but it’s lurking in the back of your head after six years except, ‘How long does it take to really get back to normal?'”
Gabriella, however, seems to have clear ideas on how to introduce her mother to her life. Ratcliffe said she had chosen what toys to take with her to show her mother how her plane landed, and wanted to show them the piano and their craft equipment. “She wanted to show her mother the things she can do now that she could not do before,” he said.
According to Nazanin’s sister, Rebecca Ratcliffe, Gabriella spent a Wednesday night with her parents in the safe house, where the family was taken for several days to give them a chance to adjust.
“It’s hard to [Gabriella] to understand, “Rebecca told ITV.” It’s something she’s longed for but probably did not know how to handle. I just heard that from Richard [Gabriella] slept in bed between them all last night. This is a really special moment for all three.
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