Chris Barton: Hello. My name is Chris Barton and I'm the author of All of a Sudden and Forever: Help and Healing after the Oklahoma City Bombing. I was visiting schools in Oklahoma City in support of a new fiction picture book. And I had time before I left town before my flight home to go by the Oklahoma City Memorial, and the person who was driving me said, "Well, you know, there's a museum as well." And I had no idea there was a museum. I'd never been to either one of those.

And I was so taken by the storytelling done by the museum and by the Memorial. But it's one of these things where I was fascinated while I was there. And I could not stop thinking about it afterwards. I was fascinated by the story of the events of April 19, 1995 itself, but the rescue efforts in the days and weeks that followed, and the way the community of Oklahoma City came together over the course of the next several months and years to the present day in memorializing what happened that day. And using this Memorial as an opportunity to try to find some measure of hope and healing from that tragedy.

I began my research by doing lots of database searches. Back to the LexisNexis at the University of Texas library, looking for articles about all sorts of aspects of the event, of the bombing itself, of the recovery, of specific individuals, and there are certain names that kept coming up over and over, certain anecdotes. I didn't know what exactly I was looking for, the survivor tree, the American elm tree that stood across the street from the Murrah building, that came up in some of the stories, but there are lots of other stories as well. After consuming lots of those and getting a really solid background in what had happened and having some sense of the story I wanted to tell, I began reaching out to people who were directly affected by what happened.

In some cases, these were the family members of people who had died. In some cases, they were survivors of the bombing. First responders. Other people with some sort of involvement in the memorial. I went back to Oklahoma City to spend more time at the Museum and at the Memorial, including time spent in the archives, the vast archives at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum. I'm going to read an excerpt from the middle of All of a Sudden and Forever:

It is also true that, all the while, one tree stood near the bombed building. This tree, an American elm, had not been much to look at before the bombing, though it did give off some shade. The blast had scorched the elm, blown debris into its branches, and left it looking worse than ever. Investigators collecting evidence considered cutting down the tree, but it was spared.

It received help. Even after the building was gone, the tree survived. During the next year, people dealt with their pain in different ways. But healing doesn't always come easily. Many whose lives had been changed by the bombing ask why. Why me? Why us? Why them? Why?

While waiting for an answer that may never come, many vowed to remember. They vowed to tell their stories. Their stories would keep alive those they had lost. Those stories, told and retold, would make sure the past had a place in the present.

Many learned to piece their lives back together, even when important parts were gone forever.

Some needed lots of help, and they received it from lots of people. Some of those helpers themselves were hurting -- maybe from the bombing, maybe from something else that had happened to them before. Helpers often know how it feels to be in need, and they know from their own difficult times what kinds of aid might be needed.