Kathy Sanders lost her two young grandsons in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, endured decades of grief and even contemplated suicide. But she says her Christian faith ultimately taught her how to forgive the men responsible while giving her the strength to keep searching for answers about the attack. Sanders, whose grandsons Chase Smith, 3, and Colton Smith, 2, were killed at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, discussed her journey during a recent interview with Tucker Carlson.
She also described her decades-long effort to investigate questions surrounding the bombing. Consumed by grief after the bombing, Sanders said her husband, Glenn Wilburn, remained angry at both God for not saving their grandsons and Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted and executed for the bombing. Wilburn would often talk about spitting on McVeigh’s grave and drinking champagne to celebrate his execution, she recalled. But Wilburn died at age 47, before McVeigh was executed.
Sanders said she contemplated suicide but never carried through for the sake of her husband and daughter. She recalled television host John Walsh telling bombing survivors they would grieve deeply but survive, and said she began praying after Glenn’s death. She said forgiveness came as a process that started when she began praying for McVeigh and for Terry Nichols, McVeigh’s convicted co-conspirator.
Sanders said she attended one of Nichols’ trials after her husband died and met a woman she believed was his mother in a hallway. She introduced herself, comforted her, and the two became friends. Nichols was not sentenced to death in his federal trial, and Oklahoma later sought his execution in a state case. Sanders said she later received a letter from Nichols and began writing and speaking with him by phone.
Nichols told her his family had rarely gone to church, mainly for weddings, funerals or