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Remembering Oklahoma City

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Touching many lives
I was born and raised in Las Vegas with my sister Kitty, our uncle, Bill Wilcoxson, had been on the wait list for a heart transplant, and received the heart of a nurse who was killed trying to help people who were injured that day. I would like to tell her family that she will not be forgotten, my sister and I think of her often. All we have is a small newspaper clip, and unfortunately our uncle only lived a few more weeks after the transplant. She holds a place in our family tree, so that our children and their children will always know of her also. Our hearts go out to Bill McVeigh also, my sister and I have felt the heartache that a parent feels when a loved child is convicted of a crime, and the knowing that the lives of people have been forever changed because of it.
--Kelly Droine, Las Vegas, Nev.

Still hard to believe
I lost 35 friends and former co-workers and to this day still cannot believe something so tragic could happen in Oklahoma. For five years I was in such a deep depression, I considered taking my own life. My family suffered along with me.  I missed my children's school functions, family get-togethers and most of all the freedom to come and go as I please. I got help for the depression and eventually withdrew from my self-imposed exile. I am happy to say I was blessed with a beautiful baby girl on Mar. 14, 1996. I call her my miracle baby. She literally saved my life. I don't know what I would have done had she not been born. She gave me a reason to live and enjoy life to the fullest. My eldest daughter and I recently visited the "Field of Chairs" (for the first time) and I was able to say goodbye to my friends and share a few tender moments with my daughter, who is a corporal in the U.S.M.C.  I hope to never have to live through a trauma like that again and would like to THANK YOU for the chance to share my story with you. God Bless and Take Care!
--grannybri, McLoud, Okla.

Personal lesson
When I was seventeen I lost my father Ted Allen in the bombing in Oklahoma City. I would say that the bombing and subsequent events in our world have impacted me most by making me realize that sacrificing our liberties in the face of increasing instability will only garner tyranny. We need to realize that events such as Oklahoma City and 9/11 should not be used a pretext to violate our rights as human beings. In addition I would say that I have realized that responding to violence with killing and violence only begets more violence.
--Spencer Allen

  OKLAHOMA BOMBING, 10TH ANNIVERSARY


Forever-changing
I know you wanted to hear from those who had lost loved-ones, friends or family, but I just wanted to stress to you that anyone that lived in the Oklahoma City area that April morning and felt that blast has been forever changed. As I close my eyes, ten years mean nothing. I hear the boom, see the sights and still feel the windows shake. Everyone knew someone or had some small connection to the survivors or victims.  It is hard to believe to this day.  I remember turning out of my neighborhood and locking eyes with a firefighter who was coming home for a break after long hours at the site.  The memory of the look on his face is emblazoned in my mind.  Though young, he had aged many years, in just a couple of days.  It was an overwhelming look of exhaustion, filth from the debris and a look of disbelief.  I also, have retained a view of the Murrah Building in my mind.  I caught a glimpse of it from the North/West side on a dark, rainy April afternoon about 4 days after the blast.  The weather was indicative of the hearts of so many.  It was so dreary, and the light of a helmet light shined out from one of the upper stories as the searcher combed through the rubble.  I know I will never lose these images.
--Kelly Labeth, Derby, Kan. 

© 2005 MSNBC Interactive


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