Denny children are miracles in father's eyes
By Sue Loughlin
Tribune-Star
Jim Denny tells his children they are miracles - because it truly was a miracle that Brandon and Rebecca Denny, then ages 3 and 2, survived the Oklahoma City bombing.
Nineteen other children, most of them in the same second-floor day care at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, were killed. The bomber, Timothy McVeigh, called them "collateral damage" in his personal war against the federal government.
On the day of the bombing, Jim's wife, Claudia, was working just four blocks south of the Murrah building at the Internal Revenue Service. Jim Denny worked for a company that manufactures oil-well drilling tools five miles away.
"I was at work sitting in the shop, at my desk. I had overhead doors next to my desk and they rattled and shook at 9:02 a.m.,," Jim Denny recalled. Originally from California, he thought it was an earthquake.
Then he saw on television that some kind of explosion had occurred downtown. He wasn't sure if it was the federal building or the courthouse. "I didn't think right away that it was a bomb," he said.
Within minutes, his wife, Claudia, called. "She said, 'Get down here right now. A bomb went off at the federal building,'" he recalled.
As soon as he got on the interstate, he could see billowing smoke and debris in the air.
He parked about four blocks from the Murrah building and walked to the scene. Four blocks away, people were bleeding a little. Two blocks away, people were lying in the streets, injured.
Finally, he arrived at what was left of the federal building. "When I looked at the day care, it was blown out of the building. It was gone," he said.
The scene was one of chaos - sirens, helicopters, screaming, smoke. Even the smell was different, something he hadn't experienced before. "It smelled like death," he said.
The explosion occurred on the north side of the building, which was gutted. He then went to the south side, which was still standing. He found Claudia there. She hadn't yet seen the other side of the building.
Initially, they thought there was no way their children could have survived. "We made a pact. We would move ahead with our lives and we were in it together, no matter what happened," he said.
They went to an American Red Cross site, where there was a special room for day care parents.
Eventually, a volunteer heard a television report about a 2-year-old girl with red hair, blue eyes and fair skin who was in surgery at Southwest Medical Center. That's how the Dennys found Rebecca.
A doctor at the hospital told them "she looked horrible, but the injuries were non-critical," Jim Denny said.
Then someone saw a television report about a 3- or 4-year-old boy with strawberry blond hair in surgery at a different hospital. The boy could not be identified.
Soon, the Dennys were on their way to Presbyterian Hospital. Miraculously, the little boy, who had just finished surgery and was on life support, was Brandon.
Only six children survived the blast, and two of them were theirs. "It's unbelievable," Jim Denny said. "I've never asked why. I just accepted it It breaks my heart to think about the other children and adults" who didn't survive. In all, 168 people were killed.
The bombing had occurred at 9:02 a.m. Jim and Claudia Denny didn't find their daughter until about 11:30 a.m. It was sometime about 4 p.m. before they found Brandon.
The children were probably less than 60 feet away when the truck bomb exploded in a drop-off zone just outside the day care, Denny said.
The force of the explosion blew the Denny children to the opposite side of the building - which saved their lives, even though they were covered with debris.
Brandon suffered severe brain injuries and spent several months in hospitals. Rebecca "was blasted over the entire left side of her body - from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet," Jim Denny said. She had concrete and glass embedded in her body, and a piece of blue plastic - perhaps from the blue plastic barrel that contained the bomb - had blown through from her cheek into her mouth, he said.
At the time, she looked like "a raw piece of meat," her father said. Amazingly, she sustained no life-threatening injuries and never had plastic surgery. She spent 10 days in the hospital and underwent three surgeries.
Rebecca, now 8, has fully recovered except for some minor scars that are barely noticeable. "You can't believe what she looks like," her father said.
Brandon's injuries were much more serious. He had a half-dollar size hole in the left upper portion of his head. Part of his brain was protruding and had to be surgically removed, affecting the right side of his body and his speech.
"Doctors couldn't tell us if he'd live 30 days. They didn't know if he would walk or talk again," Jim Denny said.
Brandon spent 71 days in intensive care in 1995 and underwent major brain surgery four times. He spent another 55 days at a pediatric rehabilitation center in Dallas.
Brandon, too, has made a remarkable recovery, although he still goes for physical and speech therapy twice a week. "He can't grip anything with his right hand yet. We're working on it," Jim Denny said. "When he walks, his gait is not 100 percent." He also has some problems with reading comprehension, he said.
Still, Jim Denny said, his son "has the greatest attitude in the world. He wakes up with a smile and goes to bed with a smile."
Both children are in the same second-grade class of a Catholic school. "They are doing great. They love each other to death and take care of each other," he said. Because of the bombing, "they had to grow up too fast," he said.
The children remember the bombing. "We are very honest," Jim Denny said. "They know who Tim McVeigh is and we explained how evil he is. We told them that there are a few evil people, but there are millions and millions of wonderful people in this world.
"Our children don't look over their shoulder. They are not scared and neither are we," he said. "It's important for people to know that goodness will always outdo the evil."
The Dennys have been able to go on with their lives and remain positive. "From the time it happened, we've never had any anger, so that has moved us ahead in life," said Jim Denny, a devout Catholic.
Tim McVeigh "is not going to get the best of our family. I think he should know that. I think he does know it," said Jim Denny, now a motivational speaker who has announced plans to run for governor of Oklahoma on the Republican ticket.
He doesn't plan to watch the execution but supports the death penalty and believes it fits the crime in this case. "Some people are for it because of revenge, and some are for it because it is justice," he said. "I really believe justice will be served."
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