April 19, 1995, on our minds as Woodward digs out

April can be a rough month.

Emergency responders from miles around swarmed in after a tornado slammed through Woodward last weekend. Some of these same emergency responders flooded into Oklahoma City 17 years ago after terrorists bombed the Murrah Federal Building and killed 168 people, many of them children. Our heart still cries for their families.

We cannot let April 19 pass without a nod to these men and women who go where the rest of us dare not go, do what we cannot manage and see what we could not bear. Firefighters, law enforcement agents, emergency medical crews, search and rescue teams of humans and their animal partners go where they are needed, when they are needed, and more often than not without being asked.

My husband – full disclosure here: he is a retired firefighter – has an art print by Katherine Huggins, who for a time was affiliated with Oklahoma State University Fire Service Training. The drawing is of an eagle. Embedded in its outstretched wing is the image of a firefighter in full bunkout gear.

The print says: “To those who fight for it, life has a flavor the protected never know.”

I think of Katherine’s drawing, and the verse, when a soldier heads to war, when an emergency siren sounds, when tragedy strikes and the men and women who have dedicated their lives to saving us, protecting us and helping us, rush to their posts and to our aid.

Everyday people can be heroes. We see that in the aftermath of tragedy and catastrophe. Thanks to our heroes, Oklahoma, though forever scarred, is moving on from the horrific bombing that left a hole in our state capital and a hole in our hearts on April 19 - 17 years ago.

Thanks to the heroes at Woodward, whether a rescuer in uniform, a country star like Larry Gatlin taking the stage and reaching out with his song or a neighbor offering a hand, that community’s storm survivors, too, will move on. It’s going to take awhile.

April is a rough month.

Contact J.B. at jbittner05@gmail.com.