April 19, 1995

 

"We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those who changed forever.  May all who leave here know the impact of violence.  May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, love and serenity."

Those are the words written on the outside of the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which I visited during my short time in the city.  While I expected to be saddened and moved at the memorial, it was so much more overwhelming than I can truly put into words.  As I was wondering around the Reflection Pool I happened upon a tour group getting a verbal explanation of the outside memorial from one of the guards.  I just sat in and listened - and cried.  It is so strange how people my age are so able to remember September 11 and feel moved by it every year when that day comes...but I feel like I never hear much about the OKC bombing.  Just because the scale was smaller does not mean the people affected were affected any less.  Just walking around the memorial fence and seeing the things people have written and placed upon it was enough to make you realize that the impact of that day on several people was enormous and will never be forgotten.  Okay...enough of my rambling, here are some pictures.

9:01a - April 19, 1995.  The minute before the bomb when off.  The east gate symbolizes the last moment the city had it's innocence.

9:03a - April 19, 1995.  The minute after the bomb went off.  The west gate is meant to symbolize the moment the city was changed forever, as well as the hope that stemmed from the horror in the hours and days following the bombing.

These two images were taken of the survivor wall, which lists the names of all of the people in the building or in the surrounded affected buildings that escaped the tragedy with their lives.  There are over 600 names inscribed here on these pieces of granite which were actually part of the original Murrah Building.

This is the Field of Empty Chairs.  There are 168 chairs here.  Each one stands for a person who was killed in the attack on the Murrah Building.  They are placed in nine rows, which are meant to stand for the nine floors of the building. 

Hopefully you can tell that the center chair here is smaller than the ones surrounding it.  This is because it is meant to stand for a child whose life was lost.  There are 19 of these smaller chairs.

The base of each chair has the deceased's name engraved on it.  At night time the bases are lit up from the inside (I was there during the day).  The chairs are never in darkness...which I thought was nice.

These five chairs on the end represent the people who were killed that were not inside of the Murrah Building. 

The next several are all of the Memorial Fence.  Initially this fence was placed around the rubble and remainder of the building.  However, so many people came to see the building and placed things along the fence to show their support, love and hope.  The design of the memorial ended up being altered to include 200 feet of the original fence.  People continue to leave things along it to this day. 

Sorry this is sideways - I cannot get it to turn around in the blog post.  There were several poems along the fence.  This was not my favorite one, but a good one all the same.  The one I found the most sad was written by a man whose daughter (pictured in the photo above this one) was killed in the blast.  It was heart breaking.

I found this butterfly resting on the fence and could not help but wonder about reincarnation and the afterlife.  There are so many gorgeous bright blue dragon flies that play all day over the Reflecting Pool...I definitely think it is possible.

Here is one of those dragon flies...

Again, sorry it is sideways.  It just talks about how children played a large role by sending in cards, letters, tiles, etc...it brought a lot of smiles and a lot of hope to the victims, their families and residents of the city in general.  Due to this fact, they have actually constructed a wall made of a sampling of tiles sent in by children.  I took some pictures of the wall and included them below.  It was a very powerful sight.

In front of the tile wall they also have these areas where children visiting the memorial can borrow some provided chalk and write messages.  They were very sweet.

This 90+ year old American Elm is called the Survivor Tree.  Despite it being so close to the blast, it still stood when all was said and done and continues to stand 15 years after the fact.  It is obviously a powerful symbol of resilience and strength.  The writing on the wall around it gives thanks for the people who came from near and far and gave service in the time following the attack.

All in all I was extremely impressed - and I did not even visit the inside of the memorial (which is a museum that my host says is extremely well done).  There are other parts that I did not explain here, but everything is very well thought out and meaningful.  If you would like to know more about the lay out and a more elaborate explanation of what certain things mean, please visit the memorial's website.