Far From Kosovo, A Family Watches

The misery in Kosovo may be a world away for most Americans, but for Mia Gashi and her family, there is nothing remote about it.

The Gashis are Kosovar-Albanians who moved from Pristina to Chicago nine years ago. They left behind their entire family. They haven't seen some of them since a visit home in 1995.

When CBS News Correspondent Jeffrey Kofman met them on Tuesday, what little news they had from a neighbor in Pristina was grim.

"No food, no water, nothing. And her last words that she said: 'Please help us. This is the end for us,'" said Drita Gashi.

With no contact from family in Kosovo and phone lines busy, the family sorts through the faces of refugees shown on television in the hopes of seeing a relative.

Drita despairs, wondering where her family might be.

"I wish I knew," she says tearfully.

But by the end of the week, the Gashi family receives some remarkable answers from the daily news.

On the front page of the Chicago Tribune, they spot a missing cousin in a picture of refugees. And on television, they see the aunt of Mia Gashi's husband.

Mia spotted the 82-year-old woman in TV images. She was in the arms of her grandson. According to the news report, she had walked 12 miles.

"It's hard being here and not being able to help anybody," Drita says.

With so many relatives still missing and their plight so desperate, there is little relief. Finding even a few familiar faces brings the Gashis little joy.

The family agrees that they'd rather be together with their relatives, knowing that if death should come, they would die together, not apart.

Reported By Jeffrey Kofman