Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 10, 1995 TAG: 9507100125
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: OKLAHOMA CITY LENGTH: Medium
Nearly everywhere she looks, Aren Almon sees the picture - in newspapers and magazines, on paintings and posters, even on T-shirts.
The photo of tiny Baylee Almon, cradled in a firefighter's arms, is for many the tragic symbol of the Oklahoma City bombing. But the image has become a burden for the little girl's mother.
Almon gave countless interviews after the bombing, saying she wanted to show those responsible how much she was suffering. Now, after more than two months of ceremonies and gifts from well-wishers, she wants life to return to normal.
``Everybody recognizes me. I can't even go to my nephew's ball games because people recognize me,'' Almon said recently. ``I am going to have to get on with my life a little bit. And every time I turn around I can't seem to.''
Baylee was killed the day after her first birthday, along with 167 others in the bombing. But Baylee was only one of 15 children who died in the America's Kids Day-Care center that day, and four other children also were killed in the building.
Relatives of some of those children are concerned that their losses are being forgotten - and they told Almon so at a get-together.
It got ``kind of ugly,'' she said. ``They were, like, `well, our children were carried out, too.'
``They don't think about every time I open a book, there it is, or every time I open a magazine, there it is,'' Almon said, near tears. ``I would trade places, if I could. If I could, I'd give everything back to have Baylee.''
Other relatives say it's not Almon; they are irate because public officials have been ignoring them.
``When we had the meeting, we asked how many people did the governor contact about anything like a memorial, and she was the only one the governor contacted,'' said Earnestine Looney, who lost her grandson, Domenique London, in the bombing.
``You have a whole meeting about all the kids and the governor only contacts one person because this is the picture that broke all the world's heart,'' Looney said.
Looney and several other victims' relatives also sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, complaining that plans to dedicate a room Wednesday in Washington in Baylee's memory would be "a terrible injustice.''
``We mean not to make little of Aren's loss, but by letting this go by, we would be making very little of our own,'' said the letter, which was faxed to The Associated Press Saturday.
The room in the Health and Human Service's Office of Child Support Enforcement is one of six that will be dedicated to ``individuals who have made a difference in the child-support program,'' said Paula Wood, who directs child support enforcement for Oklahoma.
``We celebrate Baylee's life, not her death,'' said Wood, whose agency had been helping Almon recover child-support payments from Baylee's father.
In life, Baylee and her mother shared a one-bedroom apartment in the Regency Tower, a high-rise just west of the federal building that was heavily damaged by the explosion.
Home for Almon now is a cramped hotel room. Her clothes hang on a metal rack; her things are in boxes. By September, she plans to move back to suburban Midwest City, where she grew up and where her sisters live.
Seeing constant reminders of the photo taken by Charles Porter IV don't really bother her, Almon said. ``It's this,'' she said, pulling a white T-shirt with the picture of Baylee and firefighter Chris Fields from a box near her bed.
``We had this stopped. Look how bad that looks. I mean, it's like they did a transfer of the picture,'' Almon said, her soft voice now raised.
She said she believes the company meant well; profits were supposed to go to one of the funds set up for victims.
``But I've come to learn that people will use this picture for their own benefit,'' she said. ``They're not thinking about me, not thinking about how hard it is for me to look at that.''
by CNB