Sisters Peggy Clark and Susan Winchester saw each other about every day.
Clark and husband David Spencer had three daughters ”” Rosslyn, Blayne, and Chelsea.
Winchester was the “car pool service” for the girls. She picked everyone up after school, and kept everyone at her house until Peggy returned from work. Lots of week nights, they would all have dinner together, as well.
On April 19, 1995, as soon as Winchester heard of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, she dialed her sister’s phone number to check on her.
Clark was interning 15 years ago as a veterinary medical officer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the Murrah Building at the time of the bombing. The 42-year-old Clark did not survive.
If you ever get a chance you really must visit the whole memorial–it remains an indelible memory for me.
Living close to OKC, it hits hard. I was on the phone with a business that had a line of sight view of the Murrah Building when it was destroyed. I heard indistinct background noises from their end. The person on the phone simply went silent and then I heared very emotional voices in the background. A few minutes later we could tell some was amiss because we heard numerous emergency vehicles enroute toward the heart of OKC. We turned on a radio and sat in silence. One thing I did glean from this. There was the initial assumption that this was the work of Middle Eastern types. It turned out to be our own people, American born and raised. We should never assume that other different from ourselves are the ones to be blamed, we should never overlook just how must darkness might be lurking among ourselves, and we should consider tempering our angry words lest they find fertile soil and grow in the heart of another.
my uncle was seven miles away and he said it sounded like it was across the street, I can only imagine.:(
The memorial IS stunning as is the remaining tree (the “Witness Tree?”) and the wall with messages left by the emergency workers.
It is an overwhelming experience to stand there. May God bless all who were part of that dark day.