Granite watches site from church's garden

By Brian Sargent

Published: April 20, 2006

Four days after the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing in 1995, A.J. Shields showed support and shared sorrow with the victims, rescue workers and others affected by the bombing.

He created a flower garden, which reproduced Oklahoma's shape, in the front yard of his Tulsa home.

Shields then spent one year designing two granite monuments to highlight what the garden stood for and to leave permanent monuments to people affected by the bombing.

"It was something that just hit me, and I went to work with it," Shields said.

Those monuments were moved to a new home and were erected Friday in the Heartland Chapel garden courtyard at First United Methodist Church. They were officially unveiled Wednesday morning.

One monument is dedicated to rescue workers. It features a plaque inscribed with a two-sentence phrase authored by Shields and a Bible scripture from Isaiah 57:10.

The other monument is dedicated to the 19 children killed in the bombing. It features a color drawing depicting Jesus holding a young boy and girl in either arm behind the Tulsa skyline and is inscribed with a Bible scripture from Mark 10:16.

Each monument is about 1½ feet wide, 6 inches deep and 3 feet tall. Both plaques face the east side of the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

"We are so proud to be able to receive those (monuments) and to display those as long as the weather allows them to stand. They will be here as a constant reminder of what happened across the street 11 years ago," Lee Cody said during the unveiling. "We'll take good care of them. I know that millions of people will see these over the next couple hundred of years"

Cody is First United Methodist Church director of properties and requested the church Board of Trustees' approval to place the monuments in the garden courtyard. The approval was unanimous.

Cody said he didn't hesitate to ask for ownership of the monuments.

"I think this is a very appropriate spot," said Cody, looking toward the National Memorial. "People are automatically going to be drawn to this site because of the Memorial and it's a place for them to come and meditate and remember."

The monuments stood in Shields' yard for nine years until he and his wife, Arlene, moved in April 2005 to Saint Simeon's Episcopal Home in Tulsa. Their yard there was too small for the monuments and they put them in storage.

A year ago, Saint Simeon's Auxiliary Tree of Dreams program , which assists its residents to realize their dreams, began working with A.J. to find a suitable location for his monuments. Six months ago, the First United Methodist Church became the owners of the monuments.