Where I was at 9:02 April 19, 1995

April 19, 2010Katie

It’s 9:02 a.m. as I write this, and I’m remembering a 9:02 from 15 years ago…


That morning was like no other.

Except my parents were here from Michigan.  I worked at my kids pre-school back then but had decided to leave them home with my folks for the day.  It was one of those days where I actually had a quiet drive to work.  No kids in the back squirming against their car seats.  No “Mommy, she’s touching me!” to deal with.

Just quiet.

Which has always confused me as to why I heard nothing.

About the time I got to work, where everything appeared to be normal, my parents were calling.  This was before the cell phone boom and so they called the office phone.

My mom:  “Katie, do you have a tv at work?”

Me:  “I think so, why?”

Mom:  “I think your federal courthouse was just bombed. Your house just shook and we thought a plane had crashed at Wiley Post Airport so we turned the tv on.”

Keep in mind that I live a good 15 minutes from downtown where the Murrah building is and that my house shook.

We soon found out it wasn’t the courthouse but another building.

We flipped on the tv just in time to see a helicopter flying around the side of the Alfred P. Murrah Building.

The Murrah Building before the bombing
As the helicopter rounded the short end of the straight rectangular building, my mouth fell open in disbelief.

A concave form now shaped what had once been the flat side of the building.  I stared at the strange collection of wires and fabric flapping in our strong Oklahoma wind that were hanging out of exposed offices with no windows left.  Smoke billowed around the eerie site.

Thoughts flashed through my mind.

I had been in this building to get my children’s social security cards mere months before.  I tried to make sense of where I had gone in, tried to get a grasp on the unfamiliar building now appearing over what would be days and weeks on our local television stations.

I have thought back a million times as to why I didn’t hear the blast on my drive to work.  Did I have the radio on? Shouldn’t I have heard or seen something?

That day, our pre-school and local schools went into lockdown several times as the authorities and government tried to figure out who was responsible.  Beginning that day and still in force today, our public school doors stay locked.  You must enter through the front office door and even be buzzed in in most cases.  There were rumors of threats against schools being another target and I’m sure more than one parent checked their child out and brought them home to keep them close by.  I was relieved that mine were home safe with their grandparents and felt a strong desire to be home with them as soon as possible

I remember watching the devastation all week on the tv.  We couldn’t turn it off.  We watched brave men and women stream in from all over the country to help.

We heard about the horror from local police and medic friends who had been to the site.

What these men and women must have seen can be summed up in this photo of a fireman trying to regroup before heading back into the rubble.

During that week, everyone knew someone who had been killed in the bombing.  It was strangely personal and we were touched directly by the pain of those we knew and loved.  One of the students in my preschool lost her Grandma, who had worked in the credit union.

It rocked all our worlds and even the country.  For you see, the Murrah bombing was a shock to us all.  Even a mid-southwest Bible belt state like Oklahoma was succeptable to terrorism.

The pain grew deeper for us all here in the heartland when we realized, that this act of terrorism wasn’t caused by a mid-east country Islam terrorist, but by one of our own.  He was  even a former military man – Timothy McVeigh.  Stranger still – my parents watched a few days later as their local newscaster in Michigan chased the F.B.I. down familiar roads not far from where they lived to search the farm of Terry Nichols, his accomplice.

I remember going to the airport to pick up someone about 2 months later and my six-year-old daughter Tori, who had formerly seemed unscathed, screamed and refused to get out of the car in the airport terminal pick-up zone.  Later she would reveal that she’d heard on tv that the airports had been locked down.  Somehow she reconnected with that and the airport terrified her.

I remember days afterward, driving downtown through the streets.  Blocks away, we saw boards covering windows that had been blown-out from the blast.  I saw the fence where, for years (and still to this day), sympathizers leave everything imaginable just because of the sadness you feel at the site.

Today there is a beautiful memorial at the bombing site.

There are 168 beautiful gold chairs that are lit from within at night, to pay tribute to each life that was lost in the Murrah bombing.

Perhaps best expressing  our feelings, is the weeping statue of Jesus that sits outside the memorial.  He is turned away from, what I am sure, broke his heart into a million pieces.

We have moved on over these 15 years.

The beauty of Oklahoma is that the people here are fighters, they are survivors, and they are caring, giving human beings who have not let an act of hate cause them to lose touch with who they are.  If anything, the bombing regenerated and revived the love, the compassion and the spirit of pride that is Oklahoma.

But today we remember.

We remember that parents lost babies, that babies lost parents, and for that, we still observe and remember where we were, and where we are today…15 years later on April 19, 1995.

If you are from Oklahoma or not, I’d love to hear your memories of this time..please leave a comment below.

To read more stories of remembering where we were on April 19, 1995 visit the Real Housewives of Oklahoma blogsite by clicking on the button below.

The RHOK

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14 Comments

  • The Real Housewives of Oklahoma

    April 19, 2010 at 10:55 am

    Well, you're the first one to make me cry this morning. I've sat here and read post after post about the bombing and they've all made me sad and a few have made me tear up, but yours made me cry. Thank you for sharing. ~~Mrs. Nesbitt
  • Yogi

    April 19, 2010 at 11:11 am

    Great post about a terrible day.
  • Cheryl

    April 19, 2010 at 12:15 pm

    (((Katie))) Reading your post, I remember the feeling of "dullness" that seem to hang in the air I breathed during that time. It was like nothing real, could quite penetrate the fog like cloud that clung to Oklahoma for days....shock, I guess. I had forgotten those feelings. But you are right, Oklahomans are fighters.
  • Baloney

    April 19, 2010 at 12:24 pm

    Beautifully written. Thanks for linking up with us today. ~Mrs. Priss
  • ShaRhonda

    April 19, 2010 at 12:38 pm

    This is an absolutely beautiful post! Thank you so much for writing it. Also, thank you for linking up today! ♥Mrs. Hart♥
  • Angela

    April 19, 2010 at 1:04 pm

    Your post is beautifully written. Glad you and your family was safe that day. Thanks for the comment on my blog. Yeah the survivor tree -true- a little crooked but, still standing!
  • Sandi Walus

    April 19, 2010 at 1:17 pm

    I remember having the day off work that day. And turning on the tv and gasph with horror when i realized what had happened and the only thing i knew is that Katie worked at her kids daycare. I remember calling my mom and she had found out from one of my aunts that Katie and the kids were ok and not in the area where the bombing was. But still watched and cryed for the people of OKC. God Bless you today!! Something we all will never forget.
  • Nanny

    April 19, 2010 at 10:13 pm

    It is a morning Dad and I will never forget! You summed everything up so beautifully. I can hardly believe it has been 15 years ago. Seems like yesterday!! Love you all.....' Mom and Dad
  • Dawn’s Diversions

    April 19, 2010 at 11:29 pm

    This was beautifully written and expresses what we all feel. Some of these photos are ones I hadn't seen since they first appeared. Thank you for sharing your story.
  • Sheila

    April 20, 2010 at 9:01 am

    What a terrible day that was. I was a Teacher Assistant at that time in a Pre-K class. We felt the school shake. We all thought it was really sonic bomb. I worked at Central Elementary. It is by NW 39th and MacArthur. We were all trying to keep our calm not to scare the kids. Thought's ran through my mind where all of my children were. They were all safe at their own schools. My oldest son was a student at OSU at that time and had recently gotten married. My daughter in law was the editor for the OSU newspaper and they had sent her to the bombing sight. My son was terrified while she was there. My daughter was a senior at PC High and one of her friends mom died in the bombing. She was one of the missing for a while. Her friend had graduated the year before. She played basketball with her. The basketball girls planted a tree in honor of her mom in the courtyard. I also have a cousin that was in the YMCA daycare. She survived but she carries some scars on her face where the glass cut her. She was 4 months old at that time. I thank God for keeping my family safe during that time. I pray for the others that lost family during this tragedy. A day I will never forget.
  • TerritoryMom

    April 20, 2010 at 10:51 am

    This is so beautiful. You have a way with words. I have never seen a photo of the Murrah Bldg before the damage. It was very pretty. Thank you
    1. dishinanddishes

      April 20, 2010 at 12:02 pm

      Mrs. Nesbitt - it makes us all want to cry, but we've all gotten stronger! Yogi, Baloney, Sharonda - thank you! Angela - Like i said, the survivor tree is like us after the bombing, a little crooked but stills standing! Dawn - I know the pictures brought so much back to me! Mom & Dad - you've experienced some crazy times in OK (and weather!) Sandy - I remember everyone calling! I also remember people wondering if I was related to Terry Nichols (my last name at that time) cuz he was from Michigan too Sheila - so sad on the lost mom :( Cheryl - yes it was an "icky" time wasn't it?
  • Tammy Moore

    October 25, 2010 at 3:27 pm

    While we didn't live in OK at the time I had extended family there (I was 13). My great-aunt and uncle were in the bombing, picking up Social Security checks that morning. They were two of the last found. It was a horrible time, waiting for the news and watching the tv news to see if they flashed their faces. I kept a box under my bed with all the newspaper clippings and a full-spread diagram of the building. I was in OKC on Sept. 11 and heard so many stories from the bombing, as the emotions were the same. May God bless the survivors and America.
    1. dishinanddishes

      October 25, 2010 at 3:55 pm

      tammy, yes it was a horrible time...so glad it's so far behind us! Welcome to the site!

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