Almost 15 years ago (on April 19, 1995), when my oldest child was just nine days old, my husband and I watched in horror as a network news anchor announced that someone — possibly a terrorist — had bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Within minutes, our telephone rang.

I listened, and silently prayed, and then began to cry, as my husband — a television news reporter — received instructions from his news director for getting to the airport so that he could be on the ground in Oklahoma City and reporting live for his station, hopefully by noon.

I was postpartum and experiencing moods swings and weepiness. I was also recovering from a difficult birth that had resulted in several complications for me physically, and I was a brand new Mom who was absolutely terrified.

The remainder of the that day played out in slow motion for me, as I watched the news and cried upon seeing the grieving parents who had dropped their children off at that daycare just moments before the blast. The news kept showing images of the area where the daycare had once been, and it was NO MORE. And I waited for the phone to ring so my husband could tell me he was there safe and sound. And that there was no danger of additional attacks. And that he would be home soon. I held my baby girl really tight.

In contrast, the day moved at lightening speed for my husband. He boarded a plane in St. Louis and was the first member of the St. Louis media on the ground in Oklahoma City. He was filing live reports within a few hours of the blast. He was nominated for an Emmy for his work there that week.

So, while my family thankfully did not know anyone who was injured or killed in the blast, we experienced the event on a personal level. And that is why we felt so honored to visit the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum this month.

We briefly visited the outside of the Memorial last year, and were amazed at its beauty and the sense of peace and tranquility that is conferred by the design, landscaping and architecture. But we didn’t have time to explore the museum on that trip. We had no idea what we were missing, which is why I want to try to put to words how impactful that experience really is. It is a MUST SEE and worth a trip to Oklahoma City just to visit this museum.

When you enter the memorial you can read information via wall displays on the background on terrorism, then some history of the area around the Murrah Building. As you move through the first area, you are hearing normal police, fire and ambulance radio traffic. At some point, the normal radio traffic changes and emergency responders are instructed to switch to a different channel — the sounds will make the hair on your neck stand up.

Then you enter a room that is designed after a room where an Oklahoma Water Resources Board meeting was taking place, starting a 9 a.m. the day of the blast. The meeting is significant because it was happening right across the street from the Murrah Building, and it was recorded. Just two minutes into the meeting, you hear the blast.

You leave that room to what are some of the most powerful parts of the memorial — you see helicopter news footage of the ravaged building taken less than 10 minutes after the bomb exploded, and you see emotional, heart-wrenching videos on large screens where survivors tell their own personal stories.

I watched a parent describe his experience of desperately trying to find his child amonga  group of kids gathered outside, only to discover that those kids were from the YMCA daycare across the street. One of the guides inside the memorial reminded me that 19 of the 23 children at the Murrah Building daycare died in the blast, and several children at the nearby YMCA childcare were injured.

I watched a paramedic describe her experience of standing by while a physician began the process of amputating a survivor’s leg who was pinned, only to be called away because of another bomb scare, and then return to complete the job (which had to be done with his pocket knife because his surgical instrument broke). In this area, interactive touch screens allow you to experience the event on a more personal level, and the photos, video and sound make the experience that much more real.

My emotions overcame me as I walked through the Funerals and and Mourning part of the memorial — particularly the gallery of honor. It is moving to walk through that gallery and see the photographs of those who died, especially the children. Each picture is accompanied by a personal affect of that person, and looking at a baby’s smiling face with her binky in a case in front of her photo is heart-wrenching. But it is truly a beautiful tribute to the victims.

From there, you experience the impact of the bombing on family members, survivors and rescue workers in the year following the bombing, and then you walk through an area that makes a CSI episode seem very boring compared to the amazing investigation that lead to the arrests and subsequent convictions of Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh.  You get to see the evidence used to piece together the case against the conspirators, see the parts of the rental truck used in th bomb and read the evidentiary boards from the trial.

Just beyond the investigation, you see a preserved area of the Journal Record Building which sustained enormous damage in the blast. This picture shows a bathroom that was adjacent to the office of one of the Record’s employees.

The final parts of the memorial are meant to inspire hope, and I think they do exactly that. You read about the various symbols of hope that arose from the event and you experience the rebuilding of the community through various milestones and anniversary events such as the Oklahoma City Marathon.

We left the memorial hugging our kids a little tighter and embracing life a little more exuberantly. We were in Oklahoma City for the purpose of me doing a travel review (read here about a great hotel) and for a swim meet for my teenage daughter. The previous night and that morning, her swims in the meet had not gone well at all. She was a little upset, and we were sad for her, considering the enormous number of hours she spends in the pool training. But when we returned to our hotel (Springhill Suites at Oklahoma City Airport) that night, we had a new perspective. Someone asked us how we were holding up since our daughter was having a bad meet, and my response?:

“She’s standing next me, all 5′7″ of her, strong and healthy. Bad swim? Whatever! She could place last in every meet from now until the end of her swimming career, and we’ll still feel very, very blessed, indeed.”

Popularity: 1% [?]

If you want to be notified the next time we write something, sign up for email updates or subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Posts like this

• A Great Hotel at a Great Price
• Memorial Quilt to Honor my Father’s Memory
• Embassy Suites Has the Competition Beat!
• Never Forget!
• Never Forget!