I wanted to share a story about Euna Lee, who along with Laura Ling, has been held in N. Korea for 4 months.  As a mother, the story has been haunting me since I heard it.   It haunts me because I can totally relate to Euna’s actions.

Several weeks ago, we had Euna’s husband, Michael, over for dinner.  I have never met Euna, and it was the first time I met Michael.  Because of my brother’s close friendship with Laura Ling, it seemed natural to connect with Euna’s family, as well.

Michael is wonderful – vivacious, smart, funny.  It was the first day, since this ordeal started, that he had left their 4 year old daughter, Hana.  She was spending a night with his father.  It was also the first time– at that time, the girls had been in captivity for about 3 months – that he was alone and could process his feelings.  As other parents will relate, we often put aside our own emotions to focus on our children’s emotions. 

Michael chuckled as he told us about an urgent message he had received from Euna. 

Euna had asked her guards if she could pass her message onto the Swedish Ambassador, who has been the girls only source of contact and information.  (The Swedish ambassador has met Laura and Euna – separately – only 4 times in their 4 months of captivity.  The girls are not being held together.) 

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Mallika Chopra is the founder of Intent.com, a site focused on personal, social and global wellness

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