Posted on 11/28/2008 4:01:47 PM PST by re_tail20
It was a day when the lives of 92 schoolchildren were stolen in a place where their parents thought they would be safe: their school.
The inferno that consumed Chicago's Our Lady of the Angels on Dec. 1, 1958, opened a pit of sorrow that still seems bottomless.
The survivors have replayed those agonizing minutes in their minds countless times -- and all the things that went wrong, increasing the body count. In the strong, silent '50s, survivors, victims' families and rescuers were urged not to dwell on the blaze.
God took the good ones, they were told. Get on with your lives.
But OLA alums have never forgotten the three nuns who died and classmates who never had a chance to get old.
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
What a horrible event! God bless the lost and the living as well. I suppose with something of this magnitude, it matters not how many years have passed. To some, it’s probably just as fresh as if it had just occurred.
I remember it well. I was ten years old in 1958. On the television the sight of all those caskets lined up with the remains of kids inside who were just like me only days before gave me nightmares long afterward.
It was a powerful test of our faith in the Lord that He does not make mistakes.
I remember I was a little girl, and my mother was so upset, not only because it was so tragic on its own, but also because it was so close to the holidays.
I remember the tragedy as well, reading about it in the newspaper, would have been 17 at the time.
I was 11 at the time. The TV/newspaper reports scared the bejeebers out of me, since I was attending an old Boston public school at the time - wooden floors and stairwells.
Photos here:
http://www.olafire.com/GalleryCat.asp
I remember that happening! I was 11 at the time. It was all on the Chicago tv that evening, back in the pre znn days.
Thanks for the post. I went to grade school in the late ‘50s, early ‘60s in a building probably very much like OLA. We actually had a few arson fires that even to my young mind, seem to freak out everyone more than seemed necessary. Now that I’m older, I imagine the priests and nuns were thinking of OLA and trying to avoid a similar tragedy.
I remember seeing interviews of adult survivors saying that they were told to just forget everything - and this when some of them had seen classmates burst into flame right in front of them - and that the children who died were somehow better and closer to God than those who survived. This created a lot of Catholic guilt in the survivors who wondered why they weren’t good enough for God to take in the fire. Sad all the way around.
My relatives attended OLA. I remember hearing that the church consoled some of the parents who lost children by saying “A lonely God needed angels”
I was 10 years old that year as well - the event was so horrific, even for a 10 year old it acted as the first realization of the tragedy inherent in life, a beginning of the loss of childhood innocence.
But the Sox won the pennant the year after, so at least that helped.
I was in first grade at a Catholic school in a suburb of Chicago. I remember the nuns talking about the tragedy and telling us to pray about it. One of my earliest memories in life.
I remember this also. I was in third grade at a Chicago Catholic school. We had rusted old metal fire escape ladders for the second floor. After this fire, they were replaced with ones that worked, and we had regular fire drills. I still remember watching the news reports on tv—really made an impression....
Remembering the angels....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.