Steen’s Family Enjoys Holiday Free of Worry : Ex-hostage: Jackie Scardino says just knowing that her father is out of captivity in Lebanon ‘gives me a sense of peace.’

For Jackie Scardino of Thousand Oaks, every Christmas after 1987 was a grim reminder that her father, Alann Steen, was still being held captive in Lebanon.

Over the years, Steen’s blurry picture, taken before he was kidnaped at Beirut University College, sat on a shelf next to a succession of family snapshots.

“Every Thanksgiving and Christmas that went by, I remember thinking, ‘This is going to be the last time we’re going to be without my father,’ ” Scardino, 30, said as she sat by a Christmas tree with her 2-year-old son, Jordan, and her husband, Chris.

Finally, on Dec. 3, Scardino got her wish.

Her father, held hostage for nearly five years, was freed. For the first time in years, the season holds joy, not dread, she said.

Steen spent Christmas in Clarklake, Mich., with his third wife, Virginia. He plans to visit Scardino and her sister, Becky Monday, 29, of Los Banos, early next year.

Monday said she does not mind that he isn’t with her during the holidays.

“Just picking up the phone and saying ‘Merry Christmas’ (is) great,” she said.

The last time Steen spent the holidays with them was in 1982, a year before he left for Beirut University College, where he was abducted on Jan. 24, 1987.

As he made plans for a new teaching job at Albion College in Michigan, he said he is eager to make up for lost time with his daughters.

“How can you bring back five years?” he said in a telephone interview. “A person can be robbed of $5,000 and somehow get $5,000 back. But a person that’s robbed of five years--there’s no way they can be replaced.”

A year ago, Steen was confined to a prison cell three feet underground with fellow American Jesse Turner. He toasted Christmas with a glass of cola, a rare treat bestowed on the hostages for the holidays. What kept him going were memories of his wife and children, he said.

“I thought of Jackie and Becky continuously,” he said.

Years of deprivation have heightened his appreciation of simple traditions: opening presents and preparing a meal. He welcomed the thought of carving a turkey and even of fighting other shoppers to purchase gifts for his daughters and the two grandsons he recently met.

“Prior to 1987, I complained about Christmas being commercial. But this year, I don’t care how commercial it is,” he said.

Monday agreed that time has been the greatest casualty.

Her father was absent for two of the most important events in her life: when she was married in May, 1988, and when she gave birth to her son, Dillon, on Feb. 4.

Last Christmas, “I was 7 1/2 months pregnant, and I was feeling let down about Dad not being home because of the baby,” Monday said.

Family members are worried about Steen’s health, and despite her joy at his return, “I’m feeling mad about any time they laid a hand on him. All of a sudden, I feel really protective of him,” Monday said.

Scardino said her father’s condition has visibly improved since his liberation. The pale, thin face that shocked family members when he was released earlier this month had grown fuller when she saw him in Washington two weeks ago, she said.

Scardino boxed her father’s Christmas present--a set of kitchen utensils and potholders and a portrait of his grandsons--and sent them off to Steen’s home in Michigan.

She hopes the gifts will restore his love of cooking and remind him of the new faces in his life.

“Just knowing that he’s here gives me a sense of peace,” Scardino said. “It’s going to be more special than it’s ever been.”