LOCHGOILHEAD, Scotland - British Broadcasting Corp. reporter Alan Johnston was reunited with his family Saturday after almost four months as a hostage in Gaza.
"Coming home has just never, never felt so very good,'' said the still gaunt-looking Johnston. "This strange dark period is coming to an end.''
Johnston, 45, was seized in March by a small armed group, the Army of Islam, and was freed Wednesday. He had covered Gaza for the BBC for three years, the only foreign reporter to live in the coastal strip.
Speaking outside his parents' home in Scotland, Johnston described his captivity as "the psychological battle of my life.''
He said it had been hard to deal with the stress that he knew that the ordeal was imposing on his parents, Graham and Margaret.
"I felt that I had brought the very worst of the world's troubles into their normally peaceful lives,'' he said.
But "one of the better moments'' was when one of his captors allowed him to watch television and he saw his father speaking at a news conference.
"It was just dad at his best, in the depth of a crisis, calm and dignified and so strong. I was so relieved. And I felt a bit, looking into mum's eyes, that she was coping with it, too, somehow. It was just extraordinary relief.''
Johnston said he intends to take a few months rest -- but made clear that he is also looking forward to getting back to work.
