A Mormon missionary whose life was saved by a Muslim woman after a terror attack in Brussels says he has never been able to track her down his ‘angelic’ mystery hero.
Mason Wells, 20, was seriously injured in an attack on Brussels on March 22, 2016 inside the Zaventem airport that left him bleeding and collapsing after the attack by the Islamic State. He has penned a book, ‘Left Standing’ about his experiences that day, as well as two other acts of terror that he escaped unharmed.
During the attack at the airport, Wells suddenly saw a young Middle Eastern woman rushing towards him while everyone else was running for their lives. He says he knows her name is Isabel.
Long road to recovery. Both Mason Wells (left) and his fellow Mormon missionary, Joseph Empey (right) were injured during the attack on Brussels in 2016- both encountered the kindness of a mysterious Muslim heroine named Isabel
Wells underwent six surgeries after the blast in which he suffered second degree burns on his face. He says a Muslim woman named Isabel helped get him through the attack
Dresden Empey, Sister Fanny Clain’s MTC companion, Sister Clain and Mason Wells at the Provo Missionary Training Center. Both Empey and Wells were injured in the attack
‘She had noticed me unable to move on the ground and came over to crouch beside me. Her name was Isabel,’ he writes in his book. ‘Hey, hey, you’re OK,’ she said as Wells looked at her with unease. ‘You are hurt. How can I help you?’
‘Though distraught, the look on her face was one of peace,’ Wells writes. ‘She had the look of an angel, displaying a quiet calm in the storm that made me feel that somehow everything would be OK.’
As Wells and Isabel spoke, he told her about his Mormon background and she revealed to him that she was Muslim.
Isabel also helped a fellow Mormon friend of Wells that day too. More than 30 people died in two bombings in Brussels that day- carried out by suicide bombers. The second blast was at nearby Maalbeek metro station.
He says 18 months later, and he still has not been able to track her down- he even dedicated his book to his mysterious heroine.
More than 30 people perished and hundreds more were injured in that attack — carried out by two suicide bombers — as well as another blast at the nearby Maalbeek metro station.
‘My life was changed forever. Every day I wake up to a scarred hand,’ he says in an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune. ‘I’ll carry shrapnel scars and skin grafts for the rest of my life. I’ve chosen to let those reminders draw me back to the heroes and blessings on that cold March day … rather than the pain.’
Wells of Sandy, Utah, is greeted in a Belgian hospital by his parents on Thursday, March 24, 2016
Sister Fanny Clain, who was also injured in the attack was briefly reunited with Mason Wells and Dresden Empey
‘I still haven’t been able to find her [but] the impression she left on me will stay with me through the day I die,’ Wells says. ‘Her presence [was] a stark contrast to the killers. … She was proof that good and bad exist among all people in all walks of life.’
Wells says that he will keep with him the conviction that ‘the actions of terrorists do not represent the beliefs of the hundreds of Muslims I talked with during my missionary service.’
His fellow LDS member Joseph Empey, 20, was also hurt in the attack, and says Isabel’s compassion touched him as well.
‘As far as Islam goes, I have nothing but respect and love for the people of that faith,’ Empey says. ‘She was a true example of the Islamic faith, using it for good instead of to hurt people.’
Astonishingly Wells was at the scene of two other terror attacks as well. He was at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon waiting for his mother to finish when bombs went off.
Mason Wells is now at the Naval Academy- pictured here in his Naval uniform
Later, as a Mormon missionary in France, he found himself running for his life amid civil and religious unrest after coordinated terror attacks rocked that country in late 2015.
Wells and Empey suffered serious injuries in the attack in Berlin. Empey still has scares and says he has ‘quite a few pieces of shrapnel’ still lodged that caused long-term nerve damage to his right leg and foot- though he says he is ‘100 per cent recovered.’
Wells suffered shrapnel wounds to his legs and a foot, and scorched by second-degree burns to his face and a hand.
His road to recovery was long and painful. He underwent six operations, skin grafts and excruciating therapy sessions.
‘The things I’ve experienced in life have added to my confidence that God lives and is watchful of our lives,’ Wells explains. ‘By embracing hope in good things to come, we can make the hard times less challenging, and find greater faith amid chaos.’