‘I think God listened’: Marc Fogel’s mom reacts to him returning home from Russian imprisonment

An Oakmont history teacher imprisoned in Russia for more than three years is back in the United States.

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Marc Fogel was detained for having half an ounce of medical marijuana at a Russian airport. He’d been teaching there and was finishing up his last year before retirement.

“I think God listened to us,” Fogel’s mother Malphine said.

The nearly 96-year-old described the phone call she received from her son.

“He said ‘Bonjorno.’ I said ‘well, this is the wrong time for you to be calling.’” Malphine told Channel 11.

“I just got dizzy. I thought, did I get this right? Really, I couldn’t process it. I said, ‘what did you say?’ He said, ‘I’m coming home.’”

It was the news she’d waited for but wasn’t sure she’d live long enough to hear.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Family of Oakmont teacher detained in Russia still fighting to bring him home 2 years later

“I really wondered if I’d get to see him, again, and I think he did, too.”

“We’re having some Scotch,” Marc’s sister Anne told Channel 11 over the phone. “We knew last week he was removed from the penal colony and we were told by a number of people he was getting a shower and a haircut. So, we knew something was happening, but you never know.”

They’d been disappointed before. Malphine says Marc was “crushed” when he wasn’t part of a prisoner swap in August.

He and his family never lost faith.

“I said, ‘God is tired of hearing from us.’ We have prayed Rosaries every night at 9:30, my sisters and I.”

Up next for Fogel is a stint at a military base while he gets re-acclimated. Then, the reunion Malphine and Anne have dreamed of.

“I just want to touch him, feed him!” Malphine said.

Family members also told Channel 11 they are thankful for all the local, state and federal lawmakers who worked to secure Marc’s release.

Malphine believes her son will “fully immerse” himself in Pittsburgh culture when he gets home.

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