“I was going to summer school in the business building and staying in the Scottish Rite Dormitory. I needed stamps and the post office was at the bottom of the tower. But I had rented a sewing machine for that summer semester to make a few dresses for fall of my senior year, so I bypassed the tower to go back and sew, thank goodness.
I was busy stitching away, so decided to go to second lunch and had my little electric radio on listening to music.Then a news alert came over the radio, saying that someone was shooting people from the top of the tower.
Well it was hard to believe – it was really a foreign concept 50 years ago. So, I went up to the top floor, the library, I think, of SRD and looked out towards the tower.
I could see him walking back and forth a bit. So I figured if I could see him, he could see me and I went back downstairs. They actually had to lock the doors of SRD to keep girls from going out to see what was going on.
I went down to the pay phones in the basement to try to call my mother to tell her that I was OK, but all the circuits were jammed and busy. Later, I got through.
Of course, watching the rest on the TV was hard to comprehend. Later in the afternoon, it was just plain eerie on campus.
We walked around in disbelief that some students and others had been shot and killed right were we were, and where we had just walked and been … I imagine it’s like soldiers feel.
Although I have not always been thankful for some of my decisions, I have always been thankful for that little rented sewing machine and the decisions that I made that day.
I was reared a church-going Methodist, was a happy, thankful person. When I remember that day (and parts of it stay VERY clear in my mind), I remain a happy, thankful lady who is still a church-going Methodist.”