From NIGHTLINE 21/12/1997
The Keepers, Part I
Terrorist Bombing Inspires Love and
Kindness
Dec. 18, 1997
TED KOPPEL
The world has found a variety of ways of living and
dealing with the aftermath of Pan Am 103. Two Libyan nationals are still being sought in connection with planting the bomb that blew that 747 jet liner out of the sky nine years ago. Muammar Qaddafi’s refusal to permit those two men to be extradited from Libya has resulted in a
United Nations ban on arms sales to and air links with Libya. There are now several activist groups founded and run by
family members of those who died in the crash. They are variously motivated by a search for mutual support, legal
compensation, justice, even retribution.
These groups, in turn, have served as models for families
left behind by other disasters -- the Oklahoma City
bombing, the ValuJet crash and the crash of TWA Flight
800.
Several months ago, though, freelance producer Laura
Palmer (ph) came to us with another barely noticed
consequence of the Pan Am 103 tragedy. It had to do with
the people of Lockerbie, Scotland. It was on the town of
Lockerbie that the wreckage of the plane, its 259
passengers and crew, descended. It was in Lockerbie
that 11 Scots also lost their lives. What has been so
remarkable about the people of Lockerbie is the
generosity of spirit that they have shown toward the
memories of those who died and the sweet kindnesses
that they have shown toward their families.
Most of those who died that night were strangers, but the
townspeople of Lockerbie have truly been their brother’s
keepers.
(VO) Alexander Lowenstein (ph) was brimming with life.
Surfing was a passion and a thrill, but it was the solitude
of the sea that sustained him. Alexi was popular with his
friends, who remember him as kind, extroverted and
funny. He was adored by his parents, Peter and Susa
Lowenstein (ph), and by his brother, Lucas (ph). The 21 -
year - old Syracuse University student had completed a
semester in London and was heading home to New
Jersey when he boarded Pan Am 103.
SUSA LOWENSTEIN I remember going to a radio
and turning it on and I just remember hearing Pan Am 103
was last seen in a fireball over Lockerbie, Scotland. And I
remember doubling over knowing instantly, I knew
immediately that Alexander was dead. And there was this
rush that I truly—I cannot put it into words. It was—this
was the end. Life was sucked out of me. I was so
overwhelmed by—by this part, this life of me having been
gone. Such goodness, so much time, so much love and
nurturing in a moment. I knew nothing would ever be the
same again. Everything I knew and loved would never be
the same again.
Peter, on his way home from the bank turned on the
radio and heard the exact same thing that I had heard.
The difference was that Peter had hope. We started
making phone calls to Pan Am, to the travel agent,
anywhere. And, of course, we didn’t get anywhere. Pan
Am constantly put us on hold and we listened to
Christmas carols, God, for hours, absolutely for hours.
And friends started coming because they had heard. We
turned on the television, of course, to see what was
happening because we couldn’t, we didn’t get any news,
any information, nothing. And at some point we saw
names scrolling on television and Alexander was one of
those names and so that’s how we basically got
confirmed that Alexander was on that flight.
TED KOPPEL (VO) In those first shattering days, the
kindness expressed by the people of Lockerbie made a
difference.
SUSA LOWENSTEIN We had seen on television how
the trucks with the coffins left the streets of Lockerbie,
where the Lockerbie people stood in silence throwing
bundles of flowers toward the trucks, paying their last
respects to the victims leaving. I felt such gratitude, such
gratitude that there were people where my dead son was
who cared, who were gentle, who had compassion and
love.
Well, the day came when we went to Kennedy Airport.
We were told to go to a particular section. As it turns out,
it was the livestock quarantine section where they had
livestock in quarantine. And we thought this can’t be the
place, but it turned out it was the place. Each coffin had a
beautiful bouquet of flowers on top, clearly put on by the
Scottish people. And meanwhile there was absolutely no
representative there from anyone, not from Pan Am, not
from the government, the State Department, no one. It
was just the workers on the forklifts with the hard hats
and the relatives and the funeral home people. And I
remember how the forklift would go in, bring out another
coffin, bring out another coffin. And we finally got our
coffin and it was placed on the floor in front of us and it
looked so small. It just looked so small.
And unfortunately, we were told not to view the body
and I’m so sorry that we listened. What would I give just
to hold him one — just to hold him one more time. This
was my son. I wouldn’t have cared in what shape he
would have been.
TED KOPPEL (VO) During those first few months,
what little solace she found came once again from the
kindness of the people of Lockerbie. When American
officials told the Scots that clothing from the wreckage
could not be returned because it was, in their words,
contaminated, the women of Lockerbie volunteered to
wash and iron it and more than 11,000 items of clothing
were meticulously cleaned and sent back.
SUSA LOWENSTEIN Everything that was found
came back cleaned and obviously thoughtfully and
carefully wrapped and that was such comfort, it was such
comfort.
2ND LOCKERBIE RESIDENT It was a very
emotional experience. Initially the first day I didn’t think I
could go back. I thought I was strong enough and would
be able to cope. I knew what I was going into. I knew the
situation, but it still, when you picked up something,
especially if it was a baby’s, a small article, there was lots
of tears. And then I said no, I’m going back. And I think
that’s how I coped with what would come through plus I
knew that somebody somewhere wanted what we had
there and it had to go back to, well, not the owner but the
family.
1ST LOCKERBIE RESIDENT Working in the laundry
gave me this feeling of, that I was getting, that I wanted to
give love to, put all my love into this, this job and maybe
make the people realize how much that was what we
were all feeling over here. It also made me very
conscious that love is the, was what was meant to come
out of this, this disaster. That it had, that was the love to
come out of it and that the only way to overcome the evil
and the nastiness in this world is through love and to look
at everybody through love. (Commercial Break)
SUSA LOWENSTEIN To this day, I go back to
Lockerbie and it might almost be like a pilgrimage, but I go
back to the spot where Alexander fell. I’m certainly not a
religious person but I felt a stillness and a peace and a
general holiness in the green hills of Lockerbie. A few
years ago, I built a kerin (ph) right on that spot and each
time I go I bring some items and put them inside the kerin.
And today I brought sand from his favorite surfing beach
and I brought some beach glass and a little sea star and
a little surfer. When I’m at his kerin I sort of have an inside
quiet conversation with him and we seem to laugh a lot.
And then I climb the hills and I climb the fortress that’s not
far beyond his kerin and I look down at his kerin and I look
down at the countryside and truly the most prominent
feeling I have is peace.
TED KOPPEL (VO) But never far from the peace
Susa Lowenstein finds in Lockerbie is the pain.
SUSA LOWENSTEIN But there’s something so awful,
awful final to see your child’s name engraved in stone in a
memorial for dead people. It just seems unreal, the wrong
place for all of them. It’s very important not to forget that
not one of them, not one of them should have been here
engraved in stone. All I can do is come here and clean
this plaque. There’s so little left to do for him. He was a
beautiful kid and a rose is something very beautiful so I
always like to leave one red rose behind for him.
GERI BUSER Susan made this for Alexander.
TED KOPPEL (VO) This is Geri Buser’s (ph) fifth trip
to Lockerbie. Her loss is nearly incomprehensible. Her
husband, Warren, and daughter, Lorraine, pregnant with
her second child, were sitting together with her son,
Michael, on Pan Am 103. Kenny, the youngest of her
three surviving children, came to Lockerbie for the first
time this fall with his fiancee. He brought big brother
Michael, whose body was never recovered, something
from home.
GERI BUSER I figured I couldn’t believe all three of
them went and then I don’t have Michael’s body and that I
can’t live with. That’s hard. It sounds crazy looking for
your son’s body, doesn’t it?
TED KOPPEL (VO) There is another point of
pilgrimage for Geri Buser, the place in Rosebank Terrace
where the bodies of her husband and daughter landed on
Ella Ramsden’s (ph) house. Until this fall, the two women
had never met.
GERI BUSER Oh, here she is finally. How are you
sweetheart?
This is Ella. I just met her today after almost nine
years and it was my husband’s body and my daughter’s
body that was found in her house and I’ve been dying to
meet her and we finally did. And she’s a doll. So now
when I come over again, I will be bothering Ella.
ELLA RAMSDEN Yeah.
GERI BUSER I’ll go to her house and get some tea
and sherry.
ELLA RAMSDEN Tea and sherry, yes. You’ll
(unintelligible)?
GERI BUSER I sure will. Isn’t she a sweetheart? It’s
the beginning of a new friendship.
ELLA RAMSDEN Yes.
TED KOPPEL (VO) Geri Buser and sculptor Susa
Lowenstein share another lasting connection. Buser is
portrayed in Lowenstein’s haunting work, Dark Eulogy.
SUSA LOWENSTEIN This figure here is very dear to
me. This is a lady for whom I have tremendous love and
respect and regard. She not only lost her husband but
she also lost her son and her pregnant daughter. And I do
not know how she finds the strength to go on with her life.
She does. She smiles. She can laugh and I do not know
how she does it after what she has been through. She’s a
woman I love very much. (Commercial Break)
SUSA LOWENSTEIN The studio is a place that in a
very wholesome way engulfs so much of my life. I
experienced my greatest sadness in this room, learning
of Alexander’s death. This is where I create and this is
where I am just me. So this is the best place for me and
this is where I spend most of my time.
TED KOPPEL (VO) And it was in her studio that Susa
Lowenstein decided to heal.
SUSA LOWENSTEIN It was interesting for me to
remember the time when my choice making came,
because you really do have a lot of choices. I could be
raging, bitter, hateful. I have all right to be. But it would not
shed the right light on Alexander. It’s not what he was. I
prefer to think that if people look at me that they
remember Alexander the way he was. I don’t think they
would remember Alexander properly if I was a wasted,
broken human being. So my tribute to him is my life the
way I live it and of, course, my work in Dark Eulogy.
TED KOPPEL (VO) Dark Eulogy portrays grief from
the inside out. Lowenstein invited anyone who lost
someone on Pan Am 103 to come to her studio and
recreate the moment they got the news. Only women
have responded so far. She bases each sculpture on a
photograph taken as their bodies fall back into that
moment of raw anguish. Over nine years she has created
45 figures and has photographs for 55 more. Before
finishing each sculpture, she places a personal memento
behind the heart.
SUSA LOWENSTEIN What you see here comes
from hate, hate that individuals harbor, that they have to
strike out against the most innocent. And this is what’s
left behind—changed lives forever. Because I can assure
you that some of these individuals are broken for life. This
portrayal really reminds us of the ones we’ve lost and
there is an enormous amount of love connected with
each one that we’ve lost. And somehow that feeling of
love and peace, to me, is stronger than all the other ones.
TED KOPPEL (VO) For Susa Lowenstein, healing
began as a choice, became a journey and will become a
gift when she donates Dark Eulogy to a public place for
permanent exhibition.
SUSA LOWENSTEIN I’m glad to know that certainly
the sculpture will last my lifetime and I’m looking forward
to seeing Alexander when the time comes and I
somehow think I will. What I fantasize about is saying to
him, so, what do you think? Do you think I did all right?
And I hope by God he’ll say, you did just fine, Mom.
(Commercial Break)
TED KOPPEL (VO) Father Patrick Kegans (ph) was
the Catholic priest in Lockerbie at the time of the disaster.
For years, he helped people grieve and go on.
FATHER PATRICK KEGANS They’ve built
memorials of stone but the real memorial to those who
have died is our willingness to live our lives joyfully,
because that’s how they want us to live. They don’t want
us to get all sad and mournful and grieving every day and
go around dressed in black and weeping all the time.
They want us to be alive and being alive and living our
lives to the full and caring for each other and being full in
life is the best memorial we can ever give to them.
TED KOPPEL (VO) And what has helped some Pan
Am 103 families find meaning again in their lives is the
magnitude of the kindness they’ve felt from the people of
Lockerbie.
3RD LOCKERBIE RESIDENT It seems strange that
we could have so much love for someone that we never
knew. It may seem strange that we shared so many tears
for someone that we never met in life.
DAUGHTER OF CRASH VICTIM I always believe
before this happened that I knew what unconditional love
was. I don’t think I really knew until I met Margaret and
Hugh, because they didn’t know my father and they loved
him and I felt that right away.
TED KOPPEL That story tomorrow night, when “The
Keepers” continues.
I’m Ted Koppel. For all of us here at ABC News, good
night.
To see the transcript of THE KEEPERS part two press here !
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