Celebration of life: Mother, son eternally grateful after being spared from OKC bombing

Janie Hansen and her son, Cameron Langwell, will probably never understand why they weren’t among the many who died in the terroristic bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.

But fate spared them. Like many, they will spend the rest of their lives feeling sorrow for the victims and their families who were not so fortunate.

And they also count their blessings daily.

The holidays, for example, bring a little more joy just knowing that, for some unexplained reason, they are both still around to love. There is no greater present for them.

“When I look back on that day, it just makes me think that anything extreme can happen on any given day,” said Hansen, now 50, who now lives in Roanoke with her husband Randy. “We are never promised tomorrow, so we should live for each day.”

She and Randy have three other children spread out between Texas and Colorado. What happened on that day almost three decades ago continues to tighten the family today, Janie said.

Ear infection turns into eternal blessing

Langwell, now 28, was only an infant then. Normally, Hansen would have left him at the daycare in the Murrah building, but that day she took him with her to the pharmacy where she worked a few blocks away. He had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon for a chronic ear infection.

“I started off to work on a beautiful day. I arrived at work, and got busy taking phone calls and filling prescriptions,” she recalled. “We felt a huge jolt, saw the windows to the pharmacy shaking, and heard a noise unlike anything we had ever heard before. We thought maybe an elevator had fallen in The First National Building, which housed the pharmacy on the ground floor of a 26-story building.”

Hansen wandered into the hall as folks were starting to buzz around with curiosity. Slowly, some customers started making their way in, asking for first-aid supplies; some were bloody, disheveled and confused. Then, they heard the news that there had been a bombing at the Murrah building a few blocks away.

“The thing that affected me most about the bombing at that moment was I had enrolled my 4-month-old son in the daycare at the bottom of the Murrah building,” she said. “I had filled out all of the paperwork, crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s. I was praising God at that very moment, that I had decided to take my son into work with me that day.”

That wasn’t the only fate that intervened for the mother and son that day.

“I had gone in early, at 8:30 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. ... I usually was sitting at the very stoplight each morning, about 9:02 or 9:03 a.m. (the time of the bombing),” Hansen said. “I know this because I always pulled into my parking garage about 9:05 a.m., and I would always check my car clock at that stoplight. By God’s grace, we had gone in early that very day.

“I hated for him to hurt, and this sounds strange, but I am so thankful for those ear infections that caused us to go in early to work that day.”

Annual remembrance of victims and survivors

Each year on April 19, Hansen and several friends recollect that fateful day, and remind each other how grateful they are to still be around. They remember and honor those who are not.

“So, God had a different plan for my son Cameron and me,” she said. “We did have some customers and friends that we lost, as well as some who were injured or lost loved ones or colleagues in those early hours. All of us that worked downtown kind of considered each other family, and we were a tight-knit community.”

Langwell now has a family of his own, including two daughters named Genesis and Xiomara. He is an Army medic and his wife, Rosi, is a nurse. They are stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

“They are amazing little girls, that also would never have been, but for the grace of God,” Hansen said, holding back tears.

His survival that day wasn’t a regular topic of discussion with his mom. After all, how do you tell your son that he was almost killed even before his life started?

“It happened when I was really really little, so there wasn’t a lot of impact compared to other significant events like the May 5 tornado,” he said.

Son turns near tragedy into mission of service

However, Langwell, like his mom, has learned to turn what might have been tragic for him into a way to help others.

“It doesn’t really affect my day-to-day, but it does work as a conversation placater for my traumatic patients,” he said. “Sometimes it helps someone who almost got hit with a similar close call story.”

And while Hansen cannot explain that day, it’s not the only time she has been spared. The only answer she can give is that God still has plans for her and her son.

“I have since beaten kidney cancer, a minor heart attack, and mini-strokes. I have been down on my motorcycle once, when an armadillo ran out in front of me,” she said. “I have been hit by a drunk driver, and rear-ended three times. I almost died from pancreatitis; the doctors actually told me I probably wasn’t going to make it.

“If God brings you to it, he will bring you through it. That is my life motto.”

And though Langwell was too young to remember all that happened, another twist of fate is that growing up he was always attracted to the military.

“He would always go over and shake a military person’s hand, or even give them a hug, and thank them for their service,” Hansen said. “He would beeline towards them, anywhere we were, at the mall, a restaurant, walking down the sidewalk, at the airport, at church, anywhere at all, from the time he was a toddler, to the present.”

Now, he is among those working to protect the United States from threats. He said his career is in large part due to not becoming a victim of the bombing.

“I want to do everything I can to ... keep another terrorist attack from happening on American soil, whether domestic or foreign,” he said. “I am so very thankful that God chose to spare us on that fateful day.”

Hansen is still terrified by loud noises and has bouts of anxiety, but staying busy and determined helps, she said. She has also learned to find joy in the little things, such as going to the beach, walking through a park, and especially spending time with friends and family.

“Every year, especially when April rolls around, I do dwell on the memory more, and remember those lost, as well as appreciating the grace God had for those of us that survived,” she said. “It is a hard month to get through each year. I do have the guilty feeling of, ‘Why were we spared, and others weren’t?’ I don’t deserve to be here over anyone else. So, I do believe that God had a purpose for me and for Cameron to carry on.

“I see pictures of him over the years, how many great things he has gotten to experience, what a great life he has had, and how proud of him I am. He has a beautiful family, he serves our country, and he is just an amazing guy. To think, he almost didn’t get to have this life.”

This story was originally published December 27, 2021 at 6:00 AM.