Mother Of Freed Journalist Talks About Learning Her Son Had Been Released From Syria

The mother of American journalist Peter Theo Curtis, who was freed on Sunday after being held hostage by a Syrian extremist group for nearly 2 years, spoke about what the past few days have been like since learning of her son's freedom.

"We had been waiting for that call," Nancy Curtis told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an interview Tuesday.

She said it was a "huge relief" to hear of the negotiation with Qatari officials to release him, describing her initial feelings as "panic" and "sheer terror" when she first learned of his abduction in 2012.

"You learn to just take each hour as it comes," she continued. "And you cannot live in anguish for years on end."

Curtis said that, as of now, her only plan for when her son returns home is to just take it easy.

"I think he's going to be exhausted after a long trip, I can tell you I'm exhausted, and I think we'll just be really quiet for a while," she said.

Curtis finally returned home to the US on Tuesday afternoon, and was reunited with his mother at Boston Logan International Airport.