Former Nurse Writes Poem Tribute To Memorial Marathon Honoring OKC Bombing

The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon brings hope to Oklahoma City. A person will find a peaceful atmosphere at the Oklahoma City National Memorial. It honors those who were killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.  

A former Oklahoma City emergency room nurse remembers that day. Following last week's Memorial Marathon, she felt the need to share a poem she wrote.  

Carol Cooper has never considered herself much of a writer, but Cooper is passionate.  

“It just started coming to me,” Cooper said. 

Cooper spent most of her life in the emergency room caring for patients as a nurse.  

“I felt like that was where I should have been,” Cooper said.  

Cooper remembers April 19, 1995.  

“It was really a beautiful day,” said Cooper, describing how the day began. “The air was still, and it was cool and crisp.”  

One of her patients noticed something first.  

“I was concentrating on what I was doing, and she asked me, she said, ‘Did you feel that?’” Cooper said. 

The bombing is a moment engraved into Oklahoma City’s past forever.  

“It was just a long and traumatic day,” Cooper said. 

However, Cooper said she’s proud of how her community heals from this wound.  

“This is a special event for them,” Cooper said. 

The Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon offers a time when people run to honor the 168 lives taken on that day.  

“I don’t think there’s any way a person can describe what you feel when you see those chairs,” Cooper said. 

That’s why Cooper writes from her heart. Cooper holds empathy for the void left in people’s lives.  

Words Cooper hopes provide comfort -- when people remember.  

Here are those words. 

The Run to Remember  

By Carol Cooper 

A day to remember each year, 

of those lost whom we hold dear. 

We will remember the one hundred and sixty-eight, that on a beautiful April morning, met their fate. 

At 9:02 am, together, they each entered that Holy Gate. 

The names of the one hundred and sixty-eight, will forever in our minds persist. 

The evil, will be as if he never existed, then, he will only be a footnote in history, of no matter in our memory. 

The Memorial Run is a celebration. 

Runners come from around the world and across the nation. 

This early morning is much like that April morning in 1995. 

Sunny, clear and cool, our city so alive. 

In mere minutes we would be made aware, 

that there are people, who are reprehensible beyond compare. 

Our city was not, by this act of evil broken. 

 In those one hundred and sixty-eight seconds not a word is spoken. 

The one hundred and sixty-eight empty chairs serve as a silent token. 

The Memorial, is a peaceful, beautiful space. 

 The presence of the one hundred and sixty-eight can be felt in this place. 

There is a feeling here, of hallowed ground of serenity and peace. 

We remember and think of those too early from this life released. 

The years that have passed, impossibly as it seems, are twenty-eight. 

Each year, there is a tradition to run on an April date. 

Anyone can see, this isn't just any race. 

There is joy, determination, and pride, 

as the runners see the banners at their sides. 

The banners that show each of the one hundred and sixty-sight faces. 

The runners run, and people come for the one hundred and sixty-eight that can't be. 

Oklahoma City is a shining example for all the world to see, of a city that has risen from the ruins of a horrific tragedy. 

Our city has survived, thrived and is stronger, just as is the survivor tree. 

Those who run, those who volunteer, and those who watch in respectful glee, are here to honor and always remember: 

Those who were killed. 

Those who survived. 

Those who have been changed forever.