Performance at airport atrium a love note for reuniting couple

Lindsey Eastwood can’t hide her emotion as she broadcasts livestream video of the flash mob to welcome her husband, Jon Eastwood, at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport’s domestic terminal atrium on Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. Weather forced a cancellation for Jon’s flight, but he made it in a day later for their in-person reunion. (Photo: HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM)

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Lindsey Eastwood can’t hide her emotion as she broadcasts livestream video of the flash mob to welcome her husband, Jon Eastwood, at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport’s domestic terminal atrium on Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. Weather forced a cancellation for Jon’s flight, but he made it in a day later for their in-person reunion. (Photo: HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM)

A woman who has waited a year for her husband to get a visa to join her in the United States organized a group performance at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to mark their reunion.

Jon Eastwood's homecoming was delayed a day after his flight from New York was canceled amid bad weather. But the "flash mob"-style performance that wife Lindsey organized went on anyway in the domestic terminal atrium Friday, with Jon watching a livestream video on his phone at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Jon, from Wales, and Lindsey, a 31-year-old Alabama lawyer, got married in July 2017 and shortly thereafter applied for a visa for him to relocate to the United States.

It took until mid-July 2018 for the visa to be approved, according to Lindsey, who practices estate planning law in Birmingham.

\Adrianna Worley, 11 (foreground), dances with performers from Atlanta Music and Dance Academy (from left) Leon Von Brown, Peter Gantt and Sally Stewart before they participate in a flash mob at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport's domestic terminal atrium on Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. (Photo: HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM)

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

icon to expand image

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

"We've been through a really long journey with this immigration situation," which she said has been an expensive process. "Neither of us anticipated how long this was going to take."

They’ve been in a long-distance relationship traveling across the Atlantic to visit, and had not seen each other since early May.

“It’s just been awful. I think the hardest part is just not knowing when it’s going to get approved, not knowing when you’re going to see your husband,” Lindsey said. “It should not be this difficult. … This process just sucks for everyone and I just hate that we had to go through it.”

  Lead vocalist Ali Ramsaier (center) performs in a flash mob at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport's domestic terminal atrium on Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. Lindsey Eastwood organized the gathering to welcome her husband, Jon Eastwood, from the United Kingdom. They were married July 27, 2017, at his church in North Wales, and the last time Lindsey saw Jon was May 6, 2018. This is the longest they have gone without seeing each other since they were engaged because they were not sure about the immigration approval timing. They applied for his visa to come to the U.S. immediately after their marriage, and Jon's visa was only just granted by the U.S. in mid-July 2018.  (Photo: HYOSUB SHIN / HSHIN@AJC.COM)

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

icon to expand image

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

In anticipation of Jon’s arrival, Lindsey hired singers and a choreographer with dancers to do a surprise airport performance of a mash-up of songs: “Coming to America,” “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” “At Last,” “I Knew You Were Waiting,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Welcome Home.”

Even though Lindsey and Jon had to wait for their in-person reunion, the virtual version showed how closer they were to their special moment and some unsuspecting travelers at Hartsfield-Jackson were able to witness some musical magic themselves.

Their story does have a happy ending. Jon arrived in Atlanta on Saturday and by the afternoon the couple were on their way to their future home in Alabama.