When Linda Koebner was a 23-year-old grad student, she got to do something incredible. It was a different time, when there were less laws to protect animals from being experimented on. A group of lab chimpanzees that were no longer needed were to be free. Linda would be the one to open their cages and show them sunlight for the first time in six years. The creatures were frightened. Their whole lives had been spent indoors, in tiny metal boxes. It was Linda's job to acclimate them to the wild. To teach them to survive. She was their surrogate mother.
Linda spent four years watching over the apes Doll and Swing. Eventually, her work was complete. They were put into their natural habitat. Now, after having not seen Doll and Swing for 18 years, Linda believes they won't remember her; that her babies are now wild animals; that there was just no way. She has no idea how they will react. Then she reaches her hand out to Swing and instantly he embraces it. He pulls her in close for a hug. Behind him, Doll rushes toward them. She recognizes Linda even from a distance. Linda was in tears. The three nuzzled their heads together. It was a family reunion.
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