Perth local Lana held out her boarding pass as the flight attendant looked her in the eyes and asked if she was sure she wanted to board the plane. As early COVID-19 lockdowns were imposed, Western Australia had announced it would shut its borders to prevent new cases entering the state. With her dog , car and house in Perth, Lana was planning only a short trip to Darwin to meet her potential new love interest.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today But now she faced the probability of not being able to return home, indefinitely. “They told me that if I got on this plane I wouldn’t be getting back,” Lana tells 7Life of her sliding doors moment. “I knew it was the right thing.
I got on that plane and I was the seventh person on.” As she recounts the story, Lana smiles at the serendipity of the number seven — which she has always considered her lucky number. She has ectrodactyly, a hand difference resulting in her having only a total of seven fingers — four on the left and three on the right.
When she counted only six other people on the plane, she knew she had made the right decision. And when she landed in Darwin — and laid eyes for the first time on Dave — it cemented her decision to board the flight. The pair had been chatting for a few months after they met working for the non-profit organisation The Aussie Hands Foundation , which works to support those living with limb differences.
Born and raised in New Zealand, Lana had never had such suppor.
