Free At Last - Welcome Home, Laura and Euna! (by Mallika Chopra)

Watching Laura Ling and Euna Lee step off the plane this morning seemed like a scene from a movie.  It had all the drama – two young girls, after 140 days in captivity in the rogue nation of North Korea, rescued by President Clinton, running into the warm embraces and tears of their families.  Two women looking at their husbands with soulful gratitude and endearing love, holding their tearful parents, a little girl hugging her mom to welcome her home.

In mid March, when my brother called me to say that it seemed that Laura, one of his dearest friends, had been captured in N. Korea while shooting a documentary, he sounded despondent.  There were very few details, but Lisa Ling, Laura’s sister and also a close friend of Gotham’s, had a dreaded sense of panic.  Days, weeks, then months passed with little news and no contact.  Then a meeting with the Swedish Ambassador, a letter, a phone call - an agonizing and painful process that tortured the girl’s families.

Despite my blogs about them, I have to admit that I am personally not close to Laura Ling or Euna Lee.  However, my brother’s deep-rooted friendship with Laura has seen each other through work, weddings, and life changes.  Through the years, whenever I have met either Laura or Lisa, and as I have watched their stories and heard about their passion and compassion from my brother, I have developed a sense of respect for the Ling sisters, two girls who have the heart, the brains and the courage to tell hard stories.

What jolted me to Laura’s plight in N. Korea though was watching the agony of a family try to survive without any knowledge or contact with their loved ones, and feeling helpless as world politics beyond their control – nuclear testing and a succession plan in N. Koreans – doomed them. 

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