Bombing still 'fresh' for survivors

By David Zizzo

Published: April 18, 2005

TUTTLE - When Pope John Paul II died, Kylie Williams figured the father she never met got a new golfing partner in heaven.

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"Whenever someone dies, they are always doing something with her daddy," Carolyn Templin said of her granddaughter, who is 9.

Kylie Nicole Scott Williams was born three months after her father, Scott Williams, died in the Oklahoma City bombing. The smiling little girl brought light into the seemingly endless night endured by her mother, Nicole Williams, 23 at the time, and by other members of the family.

Kylie has her father's sense of humor and "she's brought us more joy than anyone can have in a lifetime," Templin said. But she has many problems.

She was diagnosed with sensory integrative dysfunction, possibly caused by the stress her mother suffered in her last trimester of pregnancy, Templin said. She can't read, she has problems with anger and with motor skills, and she must have an aide with her while at school.

"She's struggled for her entire life," Templin said. "She's never going to have a normal life."

Life also has been difficult for Nicole, for Scott Williams' parents, Bob and Connie Williams, and for Carolyn Templin and her husband, Paul, Templin said. Neither Nicole nor Williams' parents could be contacted.

"It's still fresh. It's always going to be fresh," Templin said of the memory of the bombing. "But life goes on. We just live day to day anymore."

Moving on with life
In 2003, Nicole remarried. She and her new husband, Tim Flick, have two boys, the last one born just weeks ago, Templin said.

In the months after the bombing, friends, charities and others helped Nicole. But in following years, while the lives of others in the community seemed to move past the bombing, Templin said, "ours didn't, unfortunately, for many, many years. It still hasn't totally."

Caring for a child with special needs, Nicole eventually had to get by only on worker's compensation benefits and a "very small" Social Security check, Templin said. However, she said, the Red Cross has been generous in paying Kylie's medical bills.

Nicole could not face living in the home she and Scott shared, Templin said. But she didn't want to give up the place where her husband, Kylie's father, had planted trees. So the Templins bought the house and live in it today.

"The bombing really destroyed her for many, many years."

Most family members seem to be trying to focus on things other than the 1995 tragedy and are not granting interviews, Templin said. At least that way, they can avoid most mentions of that word that implies the pain can ever end.

"That word 'closure' we all despise," Templin said. "There's no such thing."

The love for those whose lives were lost "never leaves you," she said.

"You don't close that. You just learn to deal with it."