In her grief, she reached out to Fields and would occasionally call him on the telephone to talk. In fact, the reason she was at the federal building that day and her daughter in the nursery was because she was trying to compel Baylee's father to make child support payments. Images of puppies, smiling youngsters and a family fishing outing are among the photos she posts on social media.īut immediately after the tragedy and the loss of her daughter, she was alone. Watch Video: Oklahoma City, 20 years later: Victims' families speakĪlmon Kok, who did not respond to a request for an interview, appears to be in a happy place surrounded by family these days. "It's good therapy for me just going to be a counselor," he said. After working through his own pain and figuring out his triggers, Fields began working with the center to help other first responders as a peer counselor. I started talking to a couple of counselors."įields wound up going to the West Coast Post Traumatic Retreat, a program for first responders based in San Rafael, Calif. I felt out of sorts and started not being the father and husband I needed to be. "Eight or nine years ago some triggers went off. "I don't know what happened," Fields said in a telephone interview with USA TODAY. For awhile, he and Almon became the public face of a foundation that outfitted day-care centers with safety renovations.īut years later, everything seemed to change. Though he struggled, he moved up within the fire department.
Murrah Federal Building.Īt first, Fields thought he was dealing with everything. The explosion that destroyed 324 buildings in a 16-block radius ripped through more than just downtown Oklahoma City and the Alfred P. "It's always a tough time of year."įields' picture of life is quite different than what it was 20 years ago, not only for him but also the others. "This time of year I talk to her moreso now," Fields said. We're just a normal, everyday American family."Įvery couple of months he and Baylee's mother, Aren Almon Kok, will text one other to check in, or Almon Kok will text Fields' wife. My wife is a personal secretary at an elementary school in the school system. I'm following both kids in sports and trying to get one out of college. "I have a 16-year old that plays basketball and baseball. "I'm working towards being an empty nester," Fields said. He is a year and 10 months from retirement. Maybe this calm would have been a gift for little Baylee, who would have turned 21 on Saturday, April 18, if she had not died in the explosion.įor Chris Fields, now 50 and a major in the Oklahoma City Fire Department, life has settled in as he and his wife raise their two sons, 16 and 22. The two amateur photographers whose lives became a roller coaster after their near identical shots circled the globe appear to have settled down. The mother of the battered baby being carried out of the rubble is married and lives in suburban Choctaw, Okla., with her husband and two children.The fire captain who carried tiny Baylee Almon out of the aftermath of the blast that killed 168 people has successfully conquered his post-traumatic stress syndrome and now counsels other first responders who witness disasters. Perhaps finally, they may all be in a peaceful place. The photo's startling image touched a chord throughout the nation.Īnd in the years that followed, the lives of everyone involved with that photo seemed to have been embroiled in as much controversy and tumult as the tragedy that it captured with the lens. It was an iconic photo that captured the essence of one of America's most dramatic tragedies of that decade - a firefighter clutching a bloodied young child, fatally wounded in the ApOklahoma City bombing. View Gallery: 20th anniversary of Oklahoma City bombing
0 kommentar(er)
