Grace from the Rubble

This is a beautiful story of the tragedies wrought by murder and the death penalty, and the opportunities for reconciliation in their aftermath. Moving and instructive. — Scott Turow, attorney; author, PRESUMED INNOCENT and THE LAST TRIAL A moving portrait of two gardeners of mercy, men who brought gentle and radical love to yield from the most barren soil. Jeanne Bishop skillfully weaves her own heroic triumph over vengeance with Bud and Bill’s in iridescent prose that glows like a late- summer sunset across red Oklahoma prairie. Grace from the Rubble delivers a searing and much needed reminder that we can move past cycles of hatred if only we find the courage to choose, in spite of everything, to witness the living God in our least likely neighbors. — Sister Helen Prejean, author, DEAD MAN WALKING To me, this remarkable story is not an abstraction. I grew up with Jeanne Bishop in the Oklahoma City she evokes so beautifully in this book, and like her, I am forever marked by the 1995 bombing. I share with her, too, the hope that shines through every broken place she ach- ingly describes in a love letter to both this city and the human spirit. — Clayton I. Bennett, chairman, Oklahoma City Thunder Some say that love is the most powerful force in the world. I would suggest it’s forgiveness. And the astonishing and beautifully told story of two fathers drawn together by unimaginable tragedy shows how the process of forgiveness happens step by grace- filled step. — James Martin, SJ, author, JESUS: A PilGRIMAGE and MY LIFE wiTH THE SAINTS In Grace from the Rubble, Jeanne Bishop reminds us that retribution is not the only solution we can offer those whose loved ones have been mur- dered. There is another way— the path of forgiveness and reconciliation. It’s the path Jeanne pursued with her sister’s killer, and it’s the path she 9780310357674_Grace_Rubble_int.indd 1 1/28/20 9:23 AM wrote about in her first book, Change of Heart. This time Jeanne revis- its her hometown— Oklahoma City— to tell the unforgettable story of a meeting between Bud Welsh, whose daughter, Julie, was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing, and Bill McVeigh, whose son, Timothy, det- onated the truck bomb that killed Julie, killed one hundred sixty- seven other innocents, and wounded hundreds more. This meeting was an act of grace which transformed both men and helped lift them up and out from under the rubble of their lives after the bombing. And this book— also an act of grace— is bound to elevate and transform all who read it. — Steve Drizin and Laura Nirider, codirectors, Center on Wrongful Convictions Jeanne Bishop has written such a moving book, about an unexpected friendship between two men, a relationship whose foundation is the capacity to forgive. Grace from the Rubble reminds us that sometimes we can find the best of who we are in the worst of times. — Alex Kotlowitz, bestselling author, THERE ARE NO CHilDREN HERE and AN AMERICAN SUMMER In Grace from the Rubble Jeanne Bishop provides us with a genuine tes- tament that compassion and empathy are the most powerful and only weapons against hate. — Christian Picciolini, author, BREAKING HATE: CONFRONTING THE NEW CULTURE OF EXTREMISM Jeanne Bishop’s unflinching, strong voice is one we need to hear in our divided nation. She is no naive bleeding heart; rather she is in her third decade as a public defender brave enough to regularly walk into Chicago jails and meet alone with those convicted of violent crimes. She is a bold, gritty storyteller, and Bud and Bill are a compelling story. For those who seek more love in the world and a path beyond our divisions, Bishop shows the way. — Prof. Mark Osler, Robert and Marion Short Distinguished Chair, University of St. Thomas 9780310357674_Grace_Rubble_int.indd 2 1/28/20 9:23 AM ZONDERVAN BOOKS Grace from the Rubble Copyright © 2020 by Jeanne Bishop Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 Zondervan titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected]. ISBN 978-0-310-35769-8 (audio) Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Bishop, Jeanne, author. Title: Grace from the rubble : two fathers’ road to reconciliation after the Oklahoma City bombing / Jeanne Bishop. Description: Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 2020. | Summary: “Grace from the Rubble by Jeanne Bishop tells the riveting true story of how tragedy destined two men to become enemies - the father of a daughter killed in the Oklahoma City bombing and the father of her killer - and the astonishing journey that led them to forge an extraordinary friendship”—Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019050070 (print) | LCCN 2019050071 (ebook) | ISBN 9780310357674 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780310357681 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Forgiveness—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Oklahoma City Federal Building Bombing, Oklahoma City, Okla., 1995. | Violence—Religious aspects—Christianity. Classification: LCC BV4647.F55 B574 2020 (print) | LCC BV4647.F55 (ebook) | DDC 976.6/38053—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019050070 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019050071 Any internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means— electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other— except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Published in association with the literary agency of Daniel Literary Group, LLC, Brentwood, TN. “A Casady Hymn,” quoted in chapter 1, appears courtesy of Casady School. Music by H. P. Gersman, lyrics by E. Sloan. Special thanks to Father Tim Sean Youmans, Vicar of St. Edward the Confessor Chapel and Religious Life Department Chair, Casady School. The words from the panel in the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum quoted in chapter 4, and from the Survivor Tree promontory quoted in chapter 8, are courtesy of the museum. Thank you to Helen Stiefmiller, Collections Manager. Several quotes in chapter 6 appear with permission from the book displayed for Julie Marie Welch in the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum: Their Faith Has Touched Us: The Legacies of Three Young Oklahoma City Bombing Victims by Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda (Sheed and Ward, 1998). Thank you to Patricia Zline, Rights and Permissions Assistant, Rowman and Littlefield. Quotes from the poems of Carol Hamilton, “Braced Against the Wind” from an anthology by the same name, and “Face of War” from Shots On (Finishing Line Press) are used with gracious permission of the author. The quote from the official record of the Oklahoma City bombing in chapter 7 is used with permission of Oklahoma Today magazine. Thank you to Colleen McIntyre, Director of Operations. Quotes of Jan Henry, Chris Fields, and Florence Rogers in chapter 7 are from the play In the Middle of the West by Steve Gilroy, with kind permission of the author. Cover design: Studio Gearbox Cover photos: Pics- xl / SasaStock / Shutterstock Author photo: Scott Friesen Interior design: Denise Froehlich Printed in the United States of America 20 21 22 23 LSC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 9780310357674_Grace_Rubble_int.indd 6 1/28/20 9:23 AM DEDICATION For my father, M. Lee Bishop, and my sons, Brendan and Stephen 9780310357674_Grace_Rubble_int.indd 7 1/28/20 9:23 AM Que bien sé yo la fuente que mana y corre, Aunque es de noche. For I know well the spring that flows and runs, Although it is night. — ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS * These words are inscribed on a piece of granite from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and dedicated to Julie Marie Welch, near a fountain outside her church. 9780310357674_Grace_Rubble_int.indd 8 1/28/20 9:23 AM CONTENTS Preface ..........................11 PART 1: THE CHARACTERS 1. Oklahoma City . 17 2. Bud. 35 3. Julie . 47 4. Bill . 63 5. Tim. 75 PART 2: TRAGEDY 6. Planning . 89 7. The Day . 109 8. The Aftermath . 121 9. Valley of the Shadow . 143 PART 3: REDEMPTION 10. The Meeting . 165 11. What Follows . 183 Epilogue . 205 Appendix: Names of Those Killed .........209 Acknowledgments ..................217 9780310357674_Grace_Rubble_int.indd 9 1/28/20 9:23 AM Preface PREFACE PREFACE nce, there were three families: Bud’s, Bill’s, and mine. O Each family had three children. Mine included my two sisters and me; we grew up in Oklahoma City, a place as sturdy as the red clay of its soil and as open as its wide horizons. Bud Welch, a gas station owner from Oklahoma City, had three children, two boys and one girl. Bill McVeigh, an auto parts worker from faraway western New York, had two daughters and one son. Bud, Bill, and I are linked by tragedy; each of us lost one of our family members to a deliberate killing. All of them died young. I lost my younger sister, Nancy, in April 1990. A teenaged boy broke into her home on Chicago’s North Shore and shot her and her husband to death. When Nancy died at twenty- five, the child she was carrying in her womb, my first little niece or nephew, died with her. Five years later to the month, Bud Welch’s only daughter, Julie, age twenty- three, perished in the Oklahoma City bombing.

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