Remember the 10

Hard to believe that the 10 year anniversary of the OSU plane crash is upon us.  There are several events in a person's life where you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news:  the Challenger explosion, the Murrah bombing, 9/11...this is one of those events for me. 

We were living in Starkville, MS and I was pregnant with Reese.  Living in the heart of the SEC, I didn't get to watch every basketball game as I did when living in Oklahoma.  Although I tried to keep up on the message boards, I hadn't logged on that weekend.  Sunday afternoon, my mother called and asked if I had been watching TV.  I hadn't so she told me what had happened.  I was in shock.   I immediately turned on ESPNews, where they were running wall to wall coverage of the tragedy.

The rest of afternoon I sat, watched, and, yes, mourned.  Although I didn't know any of the 10 personally, it still profoundly affected me.  I had grown up watching Bill Teegins on Channel 9 and listening to him call the Cowboys games.  I felt like I knew him.  I also didn't know Will Hancock.  However, I still felt a connection as I grew up a few miles from where his family still owns the hometown newspaper.  And as those associated with OSU, they were part of a larger family of mine--OSU Cowboys.

I feel that OSU basketball is just really beginning to recover from all the aftershocks of that horrible day. It certainly had a horrible effect on the Sutton family, who shouldered the burden for so many.  I'm sure there are many other stories that will never be told of friends, family, co-workers of those lost.  This is one of those senseless tragedies that the answer to "why?" never becomes clear.    


Even today, as I read newspaper accounts and watch ESPN specials commemorating the event, I become all teary.  I wonder why these lives were taken and what they could be contributing if they were still with us today.  I'm glad that OSU has not forgotten, that the university continues to remember and honor those who lost their lives that day.


I so wish I could be at the game Wednesday but will be watching on television and cheering the Pokes on to victory, as I usually do.  This time I will also be remembering the 10.