Cokeville miracle marking 25 years

“Some were opposed to it, but it went really well. It was well done,” Fiscus said.

The bombing is still a sensitive topic for many survivors and residents 25 years later, but many have provided oral histories for the Wyoming State Historical Society.

Even so, residents and survivors don’t like to discuss their spiritual experiences publicly. After three books, a made-for-TV movie and other TV and media coverage, some haven’t appreciated the way the facts have been portrayed, Fiscus said. Some mistakenly feel shame for what happened, as if it could have been prevented. “Sometimes things just happen to innocent people,” Fiscus said. “We want people to remember we won, 154 to two, and that miracles still happen today.”

That is how Prows, Kemp and Williams are remembering it.

Gas fumes still make her sick, but Prows, a Cokeville resident, still tells her two children how blessed she is to be on this earth.

“Obviously the Lord was with us,” she said.

Kemp, who lives in Buhl, Idaho, was just telling her daughter the story last week. She thinks about it every time there is a school shooting or similar incident reported in the news.

“The biggest thing I remember is how amazed I was that we all got out alive,” Kemp said. “God was watching over us. There is no other way.”

Williams, who lives in Herriman, Utah, with her husband and two children, feels the same way. She admits she is extra protective of her kids as a result of her experience but is reminded almost on a daily basis of how lucky she is to be alive with healthy skin. She doesn’t know why she was healed and others weren’t, but her life changed that day. Four years after bombing, she was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “The bombing sent me on a mission for religion. I knew something special happened that day.”

Williams views the month of May as a second birthday. She is expecting to deliver her third child during the week of May 16.

“May is a special month for me. Most people evaluate their lives in January, but for me, it’s May. It’s spring, the flowers come out, the weather turns warm. It’s such a renewing feeling for me. It’s a month I count my blessings and think about how I can be a better person,” she said.

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