THE WOODLANDS, Texas (AP) - The parents of a 6 1/2-month-old killed in the Oklahoma City bombing bristle at the word "closure."
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"A year after, we couldn't pull out his photos and look at them," Kevin Gottshall told the Houston Chronicle for its Tuesday editions. "Now, we can go through them and remember the good things and keep the bad a little more in perspective."
Ten years ago Tuesday, a truck bomb ripped through the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. Kevin Lee Gottshall II, called Lee, was killed as the blast smashed through the second-floor America's Kids day care center.
Since the bombing, Kevin Gottshall, 40, a corporate attorney for Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp., and Sheryl Gottshall, 35, who also worked for the company before staying home to raise their second and third children, have kept their distance from most public events memorializing the tragedy.
The two, who moved to the Houston area in 1997 after Kevin received a promotion, agreed to an interview for the 10th anniversary "to keep our son's memory alive," Kevin said.
When the bomb went off that morning in Oklahoma City, Sheryl was in a first-floor conference room at Kerr-McGee, a block from the day care center.
"My first thought was how scared I was. I thought he would have been scared, too, because he would have heard that. I jumped up and started running. A friend was trying to grab me, but I went out through the underground parking, up to the street that went past the federal courthouse.
"It was the normal route we would take. There was glass everywhere, falling out of buildings, and there was a man in a black robe. It later dawned on me he was a judge. He grabbed hold of me and told me to stop. I said, 'No, my son is out there,' and he said, 'No. Don't go.' I shoved him. I knocked him to the ground and kept going."
Her route took her to the federal building's south entrance, the side away from the blast.
"It was just rubble spilling out of the door," she said. "Two police officers came up and they started pulling me away. I said, 'No. There's a day care. My son is in that building.' They appeared not to be aware of that. One of them started to scream into his little radio, 'There's a day care center in there! We need help!'"
A few minutes later, Kevin found Sheryl, who told him they couldn't get to their son.
"I said, 'Fine, we'll go in from the other side," he recalled. "As you went around the building, you could see there was nothing left. The worst area, they called it the pancake area, was right where the infant day care was, right at that corner."
Lee's remains were found two weeks later. He was buried in Norman, Okla., in a private, graveside service.
Shortly after the funeral, Sheryl became pregnant with Elizabeth Lee, who is now 9. A son, Kevin Lee Gottshall III, whom they call Kevin, was born two years later. He is now 7.
The Gottshalls paid close attention to the federal trials of bomber Timothy McVeigh and his accomplice, Terry Nichols. And Kevin testified during the punishment phase of Nichols' 2004 trial on state capital murder charges.
Kevin said he is still trying to understand the motive.
"It's almost to say, 'Here is a picture of my son. This is who you destroyed, along with a lot of other people. How could you think that would be worthwhile?
"I'm trying to make sense of something that will never make sense."
