Telling her story has been "cathartic" for Carroll

Telling for the first time the story of her kidnapping and her 82 days in captivity in Iraq in a series currently running in The Christian Science Monitor has been a cathartic experience for Jill Carroll, her mother says in a piece that appeared in today's The Ann Arbor News.

Mary Beth Carroll says it has been difficult for Jill to talk about what she went through and she worried about her daughter following her return to the United States. "She came home to Boston and said, 'I will never leave this country. I will never be a journalist again. I'm going to live with you, Mom. I'm going to live with Dad. I'm going to live with my sister, Katie.'" Mary Beth says those thoughts were not at all like the Jill she knew, but adds that Jill has "come around to remembering her love for journalism. There are a great deal of fears she's going to have to overcome to pursue what she wants to do in the field of journalism.''

Jill completed one televised interview for The Christian Science Monitor, which had an agreement with ABC News. She plans no other media appearances. "She's just not interested in that. She just wants to be a foreign correspondent, and as odd as it might seem with this series, she just wants to keep a low profile so she can do work without the notoriety of her name," says her mother.

Mary Beth hopes that once the series has completed its run, "people will leave Jill alone" and allow her the time she needs to deal with what she went through, "put it behind her and go forward." All Jill really wants, her mother says, is "to be Jill Carroll, correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor. She just wants to not be famous.''

Thanks to Romenesko for the link.