Two weeks ago, I wrote a column making fun of fellow journalists, which prompted an email from an unlikely source -- a public information officer at the Oklahoma City National Memorial where they were busily planning for this week's events.
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"Bless you," she wrote. "I love this article. "
"Thank you," I replied. "I figure you could use a little comic relief about now."
"Yes, indeed," she responded.
It occurred to me that while in the midst of simultaneously negotiating with hundreds of competing news outlets -- each one battling for the exact same camera angle, satellite location and/or electrical outlet -- one, simple smile could mean the difference between public relations sanity and multimediacide.
More Outside the Box columns
The following is a tale of two families:
In the 1950s, they were two newlywed couples who became friends, long before crying babies began invading their peaceful, happy lives.
I have difficulty imagining my parents as newlyweds, mainly because they always seemed old to me. However, they have pictures to prove it.
With their baby-boomer biological clocks in sync, the two sets of prospective parental units proceeded to produce five girls in four years. Thus, instant sisters/surrogate sisters were born. Susie was my older sister's best friend.
Susan Jane Ferrell
In 1959, when twin sister and I arrived, Susie correctly did the math and immediately asked if she could have one of us.
My parents declined her generous offer, but did the next best thing -- they named me after Susie's mother. A few months later, Susie got her very own little sister.
Susie and her family eventually moved from the city and planted roots in the wilds of Lincoln County. Our occasional family visits were very exciting, mainly because Susie's pets were real horses -- not the quarter horses which fed on coinage at the local drug store -- but the kind equipped with saddles, that kids could actually ride.
For years, I tried in vain to convince my father that it was theoretically possible to keep a horse in a two-car garage. Theoretically, it is also possible to keep vehicles in a two-car garage ... unless, of course, that garage happened to be ours. The Allen family garage amounted to a residential storage anomaly, not because of horses, but because my dad was married to the mother of all pack rats -- my mom.
I was envious of the country lifestyle, until one evening when Susie and her sister shared a very scary story. It was a dark and stormy night ... when their mother heard a loud noise and opened the front door to investigate. Suddenly, without warning, a nest of giant, long-legged spiders plummeted atop her head ... jeeepers-creepers! Susie's mom calmly and rationally responded similar to any other 1960s-era horrified homemaker -- ripping off her wig and screaming into the darkness.
Being girls at a slumber party, we shrieked during Susie's detailed recounting of this terrible tale ... then ... giggled ourselves to sleep.
As the years passed, we all grew up and grew apart as children tend to do. But our parents remained friends, always sharing the latest news and gossip about which of us girls was doing what, when, where and why.
In 1987, our mother died. Susie's mom sends us birthday cards each year.
On the 10th anniversary of the tragedy that took Susie's life, I wondered if she would have found something to smile about today. I think so.
Susie had a contagious smile which had been perfected through years of practice.
She would've grinned at the faces of the six children who survived April 19, 1995. She would've relished in the beauty of our national memorial ... and marveled at the resilience of those mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, sisters and brothers who still struggle each day -- putting one foot in front of the other -- as a living tribute to their lost loved ones.
Susie's spirit isn't lost. Her one, simple smile lives on in each of us.
More Outside the Box columns
The following is a tale of two families:
In the 1950s, they were two newlywed couples who became friends, long before crying babies began invading their peaceful, happy lives.
I have difficulty imagining my parents as newlyweds, mainly because they always seemed old to me. However, they have pictures to prove it.
With their baby-boomer biological clocks in sync, the two sets of prospective parental units proceeded to produce five girls in four years. Thus, instant sisters/surrogate sisters were born. Susie was my older sister's best friend.
