In these two towns, there were cheers and tears.
Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan were finally free.
At a soccer bar in Princeton, New Jersey, organizers of an Gershkovich advocacy luncheon joyously edited their invitations. They scratched out “awareness” and replaced it with “is home.” Nearby, people gazed at a portrait of a state championship winning soccer team that a high school-aged Gershkovich had led in celebration.
Six hundred miles west, at a diner in the suburban outpost of Manchester, Michigan, a patron cheered “finally.” The owner, standing near a poster reading, “Team Free Paul Whelan ,” started to plan a welcome party. At a restaurant around the corner, a woman burst into tears.
To them, they were more than fellow countrymen wrongfully imprisoned by a rapacious Russian regime. This was about Evan, the captain of the local soccer team and Paul, Rosemary and Edward Whelan’s kid.
As the world reacted to the largest prisoner swap since the Cold War , the release of Americans being held in Russian jails and prison camps provided a momentous celebration for the two towns, where friends and family members of Gershkovich and Whelan have patiently awaited their return.