Remembering Andi
Correspondent Kelly Wallace profiled a remarkable young woman last week – and still can't get her out of her mind.
Video: Parhamovich, her family and friends called her Andi, was a 28-year-old woman from the small town of Perry, Ohio who seemed to have rocket fuel in her veins to make her life count. After graduating from Marietta College in Ohio, she left her rural roots and headed east, working for the Massachusetts Governor's office, Miramax Films and Air America. She was bright, beautiful and ambitious. The question I couldn't stop thinking about is why would a woman who could live anywhere in the world and do just about anything choose to go to the most dangerous place on the planet.
Her family told us she was hoping to work in the White House someday – her dream was to become White House press secretary – and that she thought foreign policy experience would be helpful. Marci Zampini, Andi's older sister, said that Andi believed that somebody needed to go over and help the Iraqis rebuild their country. "She just knew she was the person to do it," Zampini told me during a tearful 45-minute interview.
In Iraq, she also followed her heart. Her boyfriend, Michael Hastings, is a Baghdad-based correspondent for Newsweek. Andi's family said they were planning to elope next month in France. Now, Hastings has the impossible duty of escorting her body back to the United States. They are expected to arrive Monday night (tonight) at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, according to a family spokesman.
Andi's mother Vicki originally planned to do an interview with us but when we arrived, she said she couldn't go before the cameras. Neither could Andi's dad, Andre, who wondered aloud why someone who wasn't with the military and didn't take sides would be killed by insurgents. How could this happen to someone who was there to help all Iraqis learn about democracy, he asked. That's when he started to cry.
There would be calls from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who chairs the organization Andi worked for, profiles in local and national papers and stories on national news programs like our broadcast. Andi's family told us they had no idea just how many lives she touched.
"I just want to burst with pride and I wish I could tell her how proud I am of her," Marci said.
I wish Andi could hear that.