Saying goodbye is always hard to do, and it gets even harder when you're leaving the people closest to your heart.
On June 25, Friday, Catriona Gray got super emotional as she bid farewell to her mom and dad in Australia. The Miss Universe 2018 took to Instagram to share a photo of herself tearing up.
"What saying goodbye looks like. When I said goodbye to my parents at the airport, underneath my mask I kept smiling. Although it trembled. I didn't want them to see. We hugged, saying, 'See you soon.' But this pandemic makes a once easy thing such an uncertainty. When? How? When will we be together again?"
"I felt the emotions spilling over, but didn't want them to see, so as I rounded the corner through the passenger terminal finally out of their sight, I let the tears come."
"I contemplated whether or not to post this. But this is something raw and real. I'm so grateful for the time I had with my family. And now it's back to counting down the days, the sunrises, the sleeps, until we're together again."
"Please never take time with your family or loved ones for granted; so many of us wish to have that reality every day."
Catriona flew to Australia in May to reunite with her mom and dad, after what she described as "countless rescheduled flights, two flight cancelations, swab tests, stress, applications, and waiting."
In an IG post, Catriona said that the last time she had seen her parents was one and a half years ago. She also shared that when she was crowned Miss Universe 2018, she vowed to visit her dad four times a year, but when the pandemic struck, they had to settle with connecting from across the miles.
"It's always been a fear of mine, having an older father, of not having enough time with him. I don't want to one day, be full of regret for not having given time to one of the most important people in my life."