Miles To Go Before I Sleep (22 page)

Mr. Reagan was very influential in getting Project Hope to help us out. The charity paid off all the medical and therapy bills I'd accumulated to that point. The University of Minnesota Hospital agreed to cover 20 percent of my second brain surgery while 80 percent was covered by my insurance company.

Jackie Nink Pflug, 1995

At home in Pasadena, Texas, a suburb outside of Houston, where I grew up with my two sisters. I'm the one who is standing in this picture, holding my grandmother's hand. My baby sister, Mary, is in Grandma Nink's lap, and my older sister, Gloria, is sharing the chair. My grandmother is a very influential part of my life. I learned a lot about what inner peace is from her, because she seemed so at peace with herself. She died at age ninety-three, four months before the hijacking.

Church played an important role in my life. Here's a picture of the Nink family on their way to church Easter Sunday. Standing in back at left is my mother Billie. Gloria is in front of my mother, with Mary in the middle. I'm standing in front of my father Eugene.

Even at the age of fourteen, I dreamed of visiting strange, exotic lands and meeting interesting people. My parents took me on a lot of vacations in the United States, but I had a yearning to go abroad and see the world. Some people have a yearning for music or art or science. I had a yearning to travel.

Egyptian people are very friendly and love to have their pictures taken, as this man did. He is selling his goods on the streets of Maadi, fifteen minutes outside Cairo. The man is wearing a gallabeyya, traditional Egyptian clothing.

I felt as though I was back in time, like Lawrence of Arabia, riding a camel near the great pyramids.

The hijacked EgyptAir plane at Luqa Airport in Valletta, Malta. I believe that the man squatting at the open front door of the aircraft is a hijacker; the man standing is a “helper,” that is, a security person who was aboard the plane and was forced by the hijackers to help them out.

Four of the twenty-five Egyptian commandos who stormed the aircraft, and their two commanding officers (seated in front), are pictured here. I think the commandos had a well-intentioned rescue plan, but when they stormed the plane and saw the hijackers with grenades, they had to react quickly and lost control.

One of the real heroes of the tragedy is this man, Captain Hani Galal. A stray bullet probably grazed his head during the hijacking. Captain Galal landed the aircraft in Malta only by the lights of a plane on the ground.

Christmas 1985, a month after the hijacking. I'm posing for this picture outside of my in-laws' home in Hopkins, Minnesota. At the time, I was confused, hurt, and angry. I tried to live as if I had it all together, but I didn't. At the same time, I was in awe of the fact that I was seeing another Christmas. I was in awe that I looked OK. I didn't know what it all meant.

In January 1986, less than two months after the hijacking, I flew to Texas to visit friends and relatives. This picture was taken outside of Barb Wilson's house in Baytown, Texas. Barb had tied a yellow ribbon around the tree in her yard; the banner (at right) on the lawn reads WELCOME HOME JACKIE. I'm pictured in the middle; to my right are my dear friends Debbie and Kerry. To my left is another friend, Linda, and my sister Mary.