'They're going to need so much love and care.'
-- Mary Ward
Lockerbie, Scotland -- Carra Brown walked out of Dyfesdale Parish Church yesterday morning with her mind 3,000 miles away and 7 years into the past.
``I just remembered the people who died here, and then I thought of the parents of the children who died on the TWA plane,'' said Brown. ``And I remembered the little girl who lived next door. The whole family died. She was my son's age. Every day I'd give her a ride to school. I can see that little girl standing there.''
Brown, 51, is one of the few people in the world who can say to the families of the victims of the TWA disaster that she knows how they feel. She lost 11 friends and neighbors on the evening of Dec. 21, 1988, when a terrorist bomb caused Pan Am Flight 103 to come hurtling down from the sky onto this small Scottish town, killing 270 people.
Brown's house was one of the many on Sherwood Crescent to be destroyed that night. Memories of the tragedy are always with her and other residents of Lockerbie. But since Wednesday's blast the memories and emotions have flowed harder than usual.
Mary Ward knows what lies ahead for the families of the victims of TWA Flight 800.
``They're going to need so much love and care,'' Ward said. ``I had that help here from families and neighbors and even from people from other countries sending letters, cards, gifts. They were so sensitive and that helped enormously.''
As she spoke, Ward stood in a doorway of the home that she has lived in since 1972. Except that it's not exactly the same house. It had to be rebuilt after the disaster. Flames engulfed the original house within minutes. The roof started to fall into the rooms below even before Ward escaped through the front door.
``They'll have a long time to get back to . . .'' said Ward, unable to say the word ``normal.'' ``Well, actually, they'll never forget about it. It's always at the back of your mind. It's going to be terrible for a long time.''
Brown also can't forget the moments before her home, at the other end of the street, was destroyed.
``I was in the kitchen doing the dinner dishes, and for no reason I can think of, I decided to go to the other room and call my mother,'' said Brown, an art teacher. ``My sons were watching TV. My husband was in his study. I heard this terrible noise but I thought it was one of those RAF [Royal Air Force] jets swooping past. But then there was a tremendous bang, and the kitchen windows were blown out.''
Brown's phone call in the other room probably saved her life. The kitchen was ablaze.
``We were all in different rooms so I didn't know if we'd all survived,'' she said. ``We shouted and found each other. Of course, being security conscious, we'd locked all the doors and windows and all the keys were in the kitchen. But my husband's study window was open so we all climbed out.''
Most of the houses in between the two women's homes were destroyed. Now, new owners, different colored bricks and roof tiles without the moss that comes with age set apart the old houses from the new.
Like the 259 passengers onboard the plane the 11 residents of Sherwood Crescent are commemorated in several places around the town.
At the Remembrance Garden, in a cemetery just outside town, flowers, American flags and hand-written notes yesterday paid silent tribute to the victims of Lockerbie. In front of one memorial stone for an American victim lay a wreath of pink and purple flowers. ``Sarah'' read the card. ``Mummy and Daddy.''
A few miles on the other side of town is the field where the cockpit
of the plane landed. Nearby is Tundergarth Parish Church, home of the Remembrance
Room, which features a visitors book and two books that commemorate the
lives of everyone who died.