This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
F


or Amy Downs, spring time hasn’t bloomed the same way in 21 years. “It’s always a little emotional for me. I’d like to say it gets easier and that it’s


changed, but it hasn’t,” Downs, 49, said. “It’s difficult … and it’s not that you forget about it … your heart starts feeling heavy; it’s there.”


Downs, a Yukon, Okla., native, is a survivor of the April 19, 1995, Alfred


P. Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City. At the time, she was a 28-year-old teller at Federal Employees Credit Union on the third floor. She spent 6-and-a-half hours buried alive and lost 18 coworkers that spring. Each year a Remembrance Ceremony is held to honor the victims, the survivors, and the rescuers. “I’ve had friends ask me, ‘Wouldn’t it be easier if they didn’t do it any- more?’ And the problem is; it was such a traumatic event, so traumatic, whether there were a ceremony or not, you’re going to struggle,” she said. “If nobody said anything and if nobody acknowledged it, that’s going to bother you because it’s so huge, but then by acknowledging it and having a Remembrance Ceremony, it’s also difficult. Either way is difficult. If you ignore it or if you face it, it’s still there. It is something you have to deal with every year. At least when you go to the ceremony and you see other survivors and family members, you know you’re not alone.” When the bomb detonated at 9:02 a.m., Downs plummeted three floors


and landed with her body doubled over, upside down and lodged in-be- tween a crevasse of concrete slabs. A couple of FBI agents and a police team initially found her, but were told to evacuate because of a bomb threat. So, for the next 45 minutes, Downs thought about her life and waited in the darkness to die.


“I’m thinking about all these things I had never done. It put everything into perspective for me in the blink of an eye. It was about relationships. My relationship with God, my relationship with my family and my friends, and it didn’t have anything to do with money or status or how I looked,” Downs said. “I’m going to die and I’ve never been a mother … that was the first time I ever had a pain of, ‘I’ve never been a mom.’” There was not a second bomb, and around 10:30 a.m. a team from the


Oklahoma City Fire Department’s Station 8, noticed a hand protruding from the wreckage. It was Downs. It took time and precision to peel away the debris, but they finally counted to three and pulled her out. “I was so relieved,” Downs said. “That word doesn’t even do it justice, but relief was the overwhelming emotion. Then came unbelief as I looked around, because I couldn’t believe my own eyes.”


14


Downs spent eight days in the hospital with cuts all over her body. Her right leg was blown open, but the bone was still intact. She has physically healed, but a huge indentation remains on her leg. While trapped, Downs also thought about how complacent her life had become and how she had gained a lot of weight. She was around 355 pounds, and she realized how her weight prevented her from “really living life,” but yet change didn’t begin until 2008.


“It took a few years. It was very dark and depressing and it was one of those things that when I got out of the building, and I took that first breath of fresh air, I promised God, I’m going to change my life,” she said. “I wasn’t even sure what my injuries were; I wasn’t sure how bad off I was at that point. I kept going back to that for a couple of years, but I couldn’t get any traction to do anything because I was grieving and I was hurt. There were a few years that were really awful.” Years later she was subpoenaed to testify in the penalty phase of Timothy


McVeigh’s trial in Denver and was present the day his guilty verdict was read. “That actually ended up being a pretty significant healing step for me. It was kind of like a chapter was closing,” she said. “He had such a cold, almost proud look about what he had done, and that was very difficult. Very diffi- cult. So I focused and looked at my fellow survivors and family members.” Once Downs began to focus on her health, she continually challenged herself. She started riding a bicycle and when she heard about a “t-shirt ride,” a.k.a. the Redbud Classic, she was all in. “You ride your bike, you get your t-shirt, you get a medal, and you get pancakes. What is not to love about that?” Downs laughed. “So I signed up and did this 10 mile bike ride. To me, 10 miles is like, I am Lance Armstrong. I got my medal and I got my pancakes and I was hooked.” The following year she would ride her bicycle across Oklahoma, in an annual, organized bike ride called Oklahoma Freewheel. She has ridden it several times now, and has ridden across Louisiana once. In fact, her love of cycling steered her right into love. She met her second husband, Terry Head, riding bikes. They had a bicycle wedding near the Oklahoma City


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142