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CNN Live Sunday

Mother's Day Remembrance

Aired May 13, 2001 - 20:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER: In Oklahoma, one mother spent the day remembering the loss of her 4-year-old daughter, a victim of the Oklahoma City bombing. CNN's Gary Tuchman reports on that.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice-over): At this home in rural Oklahoma, Mother's Day brings conflicting emotions. Kathleen Treanor treasures her 2-year-old daughter, Cassidy, and two older sons. But there was another little girl in her life. Ashley would have been 10 years old now. She died when she was 4 in the Oklahoma City Federal Building.

KATHLEEN TREANOR, MOTHER OF VICTIM: Family and faith are probably the things that carried me through most of this.

TUCHMAN: Outside the home she shares with her husband, Mike, a memorial to Ashley -- a plaque made of stone from the Murrah Federal Building.

TREANOR: There is a little girl in our church who almost looks exactly like Ashley did, and I've watched her grow up. And when I see her, I see Ashley, you know, what she might have looked like.

TUCHMAN: Ashley had gone to the Social Security office in the Murrah Building with her grandparents, Luther and LaRue Treanor, Kathleen's in-laws. It was the 4-year-old's first trip ever to downtown Oklahoma City. Two days after the bombing, all three were still missing. And then Kathleen Treanor was told to go to an Oklahoma City church.

TREANOR: They said, "Are you Ashley Ekles' mom? "

And I said, "Yes, I was."

And they sat me down, they said, "We're sorry to inform that your daughter was among the dead." And everything went pretty much black after that.

TUCHMAN: Three days later, the same day as Ashley's funeral, her in-laws' bodies were also identified.

TREANOR: Now, I have great faith that Luther and LaRue are in heaven right now waiting for us. And Ashley's right there with them.

TUCHMAN: This Mother's Day has been made even more difficult for the Treanor family because of the delay in Tim McVeigh's execution.

TREANOR: Anything that gives him any leverage just irritates the bejesus out of me. But again, he is not the master of his own fate.

TUCHMAN: This family tries not to dwell on their anger towards Timothy McVeigh, preferring the fond memories of little Ashley and her grandparents.

(on camera): What are you going to tell Cassidy about Ashley when she gets old enough?

TREANOR: We're going to tell her that her sister sent her to us, that she loved us so much that she wanted us to have her.

TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN, Guthrie, Oklahoma.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRAZIER: More on Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing on "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," tonight with Daryn Kagan. As you see there, it begins at 8:30 Eastern time.

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