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SALT LAKE CITY — Harold and Leslie Scilley, of Ogden, had just returned to their hotel on the last night of their dream trip to Paris to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary when they heard the French capital was under attack.
"We said, 'We've got to ignore this.' Because it just was so upsetting last night. It was scary," Leslie Scilley said Saturday afternoon after arriving at Salt Lake City International Airport.
Clutching at a souvenir scarf from Paris draped around her shoulders, she said the couple had dined Thursday at one of the restaurants involved in the coordinated terrorist assault Friday that left at least 129 people dead.
She said it was "frightening" to see that the restaurant they had enjoyed, located near the concert hall where most of the killings occurred, on the news reports they watched from their hotel room.
Harold Scilley, a retired junior high school history teacher who served an LDS Church mission in Paris in 1968 and had hoped ever since to return, said the mayhem hasn't affected his affection for the city.
First Presidency Expresses Love, Support for #French People https://t.co/f4ep29SL7B#PrayForParis
— Mormon Newsroom (@MormonNewsroom) November 14, 2015
He said he was glad to be home but already missed Paris.
"I love this city. It is my favorite city in the world," he said, so much so that he and his wife decided to mark their 50th anniversary there three years early rather than wait any longer to see Paris together.
"It was great. I never had more fun in my life," he said of the nine days the couple spent in Paris before the attacks. Then, after a final day of sightseeing, he got an alert on his cellphone that there had been shootings.
After a night watching reports unfold of a series of shootings, explosions and suicide bombings at eight sites in a hotel under lockdown, they headed to the airport for their scheduled flight home not knowing whether they would be able to leave.
Security was so tight at the French airport, they said they almost missed their flight, even though it was delayed because of the extraordinary security measures put in place, including subjecting passengers to multiple interviews.
"We were line for three hours," Leslie Scilley said. "They frisked us. I mean, seriously frisked. They patted you up and down, let me tell you. They went through everything in your suitcase."
Waiting for them in the lobby of the airport's international terminal was one of their five children, Jenny Westbroek, and her sons, Gabriel, 7, and Gavin, 4. Westbroek said she didn't believe it when a friend told her of the Paris attacks.
"I thought she was kidding," Westbroek said, then started worrying about whether her parents would be able to return home.
"I was a nervous wreck about it," she said, moments before being able to embrace them. "They had the greatest few days there. Then, boom."
Gina Szajnuk said she had a sleepless night waiting to see if her husband, Utah Jazz assistant general manager Justin Zanik, would be able to make a connecting flight in Paris as planned on his way home from a business trip in Athens.
"I just thought he's not coming home for a long time. I just thought of 9/11, and the planes being stuck for a long time," Szajnuk said as their three children, Ava, 8; Oskar, 6; and Lucy, 4; scampered around the airport lobby.
Watching the news reports of the attacks in Paris, Szajnuk said she "couldn't stop crying for the families." Even as she waiting for the direct Paris to Salt Lake flight to land, her eyes filled with tears.
"The emotion just comes out of you," she said. "My husband's coming home. What about all the others out there?"
Contributing: Alex Cabrero
