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Flying with Jill

April 04, 2006 4:00 AM

Producer Ari Meltzer blogs about flying back to the States with freed journalist Jill Carroll:

Sometimes we take the simplest images of freedom for granted: flowers that consume fresh air to create their beauty, a plate filled with appetizing cuisine, even a simple shade on the window to control light and darkness. These were just some of the symbolic realities on board Lufthansa flight 422, and as I sat a few feet away from former hostage Jill Carroll, it was hard not to think how these simple parts of our everyday lives could mean so much more to someone deprived for so long.

When she boarded the plane with two of her colleagues from the Christian Science Monitor there were no cheers, there was no rush to greet her. And you could tell that was just the way she wanted it. Had her image not been broadcast on television and displayed in newspapers worldwide for the past few months no one would have thought twice about the 28-year-old woman sitting in the back row of first class.

It wasn’t just the symbols, but the emotions that shined brightly on the seven-and-a-half hour journey to Boston. Jill hugged a colleague from Iraq, laughed and smiled with her friends, and even displayed a sense of modesty, introducing herself to me by saying, “Hi, I’m Jill.”

As the plane pulled up to the gate in Boston, Jill glanced out her open window, red rose sitting beneath her nose. But Jill Carroll’s freedom was no longer restricted to symbolism. As she rushed off the plane to reunite with her family, Jill Carroll truly was free.

(At left, Jill reunited with her family. Courtesy Melanie Stetson Freeman, The Christian Science Monitor.)

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