EPICANTHUS

Although there have been reports of book deals and glimpses of them at a couple awards banquets, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, the two Asian American journalists held for nearly five months in North Korea earlier this year, have hardly spoken a word about their captivity or how they have been doing since their return to the U.S. in early August. Many questions remain unanswered.

Last June, as the pair were about to go on trial in the North Korean capital, Lisa Ling, a veteran TV correspondent and big sister to Laura, led the families of the two reporters on a whirlwind nationwide media blitz to draw attention to their plight which eventually set the stage for their negotiated release.

It’s Lisa Ling in the big sister role again, venturing out first in the form of a personal note of thanksgiving for USA Today’s online edition

“As I write this, I am sitting with my computer on my lap and my legs under a blanket. Laura is sitting on the opposite side of the couch with her legs under the same blanket. Every so often I have to yell at her to get her cold feet off of me.”

The elder Ling sister reveals that she and Laura had faced uncertainty in their lives before as young children, seven and four, being raised in a broken home by a father of modest means in the small Northern California town of Carmichael.

“For most of our younger years, I felt like it was just Laura and me,” writes Lisa. “We had to grow up pretty quickly.”

This special sisterly bond led them to move from San Francisco and Chicago to L.A. two years ago to be together, and it was also this bond that exacerbated the pain of their separation. There is a hint that some separation anxiety remains and that the living room of Laura’s Studio City home now serves as a telecommuting site for both.

“This year, Thanksgiving will be at Laura and Iain’s house, because none of us wants to be anywhere but home,” adds a grateful Lisa.

Read Lisa Ling’s Thanksgiving message, which will appear in USAWeekend.com’s Nov. 22 edition, in its entirety here.