We Remember

We were getting dressed. We were going to hear the Oklahoma City Philharmonic at the civic center in Downtown OKC. We were running a bit late, as I recall, and trying to get out the door. And as always when you’re in a hurry, the phone rang. It was my grandma (Grammie) on the other end of the phone. She had a very excited tone in her voice. She told my Mom that there had been a bomb go off downtown. “A Bomb?” said my mom….. Thinking it was probably another pipe bomb in a mailbox or a gas line rupture, but she decided to turn on the TV anyway. What we saw on that screen that day would haunt us for the rest of our lives. In no way did we expect that…. We saw our fellow Oklahomans struggling through what would prove to be the darkest day in Oklahoma history. As we looked out the picture window of our living room, we could see the dark cloud of smoke rising in the distance. This dark cloud would consume the lives of 168 people and countless friends and loved ones. I was 9 years old at the time of the Murrah building bombing…. But it seems like yesterday.

 Please continue to pray for the families of the victims. It may no longer be headline news, and the yearly memorial may only get a 30 second blip on CNN, but Oklahomans remember. The families remember.