The Families: New Anxieties

"This has been--this is--an ordeal. Even after it's over we'll carry the worry, the fatigue and the stress inside us. But we've learned a great deal. We've learned fortitude and patience." Thus Louisa Kennedy, a spokeswoman for the families of the 52 American hostages, summed up their emotions this week as their yearlong ordeal seemed to be approaching an end. "I look calm and controlled, but inside I'm a wreck," said Kennedy, who is the wife of Hostage Moorhead Kennedy and a founder of the Family Liaison Action Group (FLAG) in Washington, which has served as a clearing house, policy board and lobbyist on behalf of the hostages' families.

Most of the families have tried to keep their hopes from rising too high. "It looks a little more encouraging, but we've been through this drill before," said Eugene Lauterbach of Dayton, the father of Hostage Steven Lauterbach. "From where I stand, this could still fall apart again." While the rest of the country concentrated on Election Night coverage on TV, the hostages' families were mainly attuned to the ring of phone calls from Washington. Since the Iranian parliament announced its conditions for the hostages' release on Nov. 2. FLAG members and volunteers have been helping keep the families apprised of the progress of negotiations with Tehran. The families, except for 15 who live in the Washington area, are scattered throughout 40 states. "For most," said Kennedy, "the isolation is devastating."

FLAG is based in the huge private conference room of Secretary of State Edmund Muskie (who occasionally stops in to see how things are going). On the 30-ft. walnut table is a bank of telephones; in cardboard boxes on the floor are stacks of mail for the hostages, of which the organization receives up to 300 pieces a week. FLAG acts as a buffer between the families and sometimes overzealous newsmen, and has successfully lobbied for passage of the Hostage Relief Act, which will provide for educational and medical benefits and tax relief for the hostages. More recently it has taken a direct hand in efforts to break the diplomatic deadlock over the hostages. When Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Raja'i flew to New York City to address the United Nations last month, FLAG President Katherine Keough was the only American to meet with him at his Fifth Avenue residence. A high-ranking State Department official termed the meeting "a major diplomatic move."

Now that the release may be imminent, FLAG is urging the families to write letters that would await the hostages in Wiesbaden, West Germany, helping them in their transition to freedom by bringing them up to date on family news and activities during the past year. In addition, looking ahead to the time when the hostages return to the U.S., the organization has persuaded the State Department to allow the families a private reunion before staging an official public greeting in Washington. One FLAG member has noticed a distinct change this week in the kind of anxiety felt by the families: "It has changed from the fear of never seeing him again to 'How do I meet this person? What will he be like? What will he think of what I've done here? Will he look at my news clippings and be proud of me, or disapproving?' "

The anger and frustration that have built up toward Tehran--and to some extent toward Washington--may dissipate once the hostages are home, but other problems will remain. "Don't forget," said Kennedy, "there are two sets of hostages involved here: those who've been inside and those outside. There will be a lot of traumas when the two groups are brought together." With that in mind, FLAG has no intention of disbanding. It plans to relocate in private offices in Washington and remain in existence indefinitely, coordinating and counseling the families as they work their way through a difficult period of readjustment.

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