Oklahoma City bombing survivor shares moments of darkest day and courage moving forward

In two days, Oklahoma City will pause to remember the 168 people who were killed on April 19, 1995. >> Download the KOCO 5 app | Subscribe to KOCO 5’s YouTube channel | Sign up for KOCO 5’s Morning NewsletterFor survivor Daina Bradley, it has been a story of loss, courage and the will to live as she reflected on the darkest day of her life.“When the bomb went off, that whole room was red, and slowly, everything went slow, and as I was looking, it was 9:02 on the clock,” Bradley said.On April 19, 1995, Bradley, her mother, sister and two children walked into the Social Security office on the first floor of the Alfred P. Murrah Building.“We got in the building, we decided my sister is going to help me, the babies were going to sit in the chair, and my mom is going to stay in that line and wait so that we didn’t have to wait in line,” Bradley said.Buried alive underneath the rubbleSeconds later, everything changed.“My sister was helping me as I turned, and I just noticed a van there. Kind of weird, OK,” Bradley said. “Went back to doing the paperwork and everything and next I know, I seen a red light go over the room, and I looked at the clock, and it was 9:02. All I remember after that, I felt myself going through the building, I heard myself going zzzahh like I was shaking, I blacked out, and when I came through, I see myself, looking down at myself and I went back in and was like, that’s horrible.”Bradley was buried alive underneath the rubble.“I’m stuck in this coffin with the rest of the floor down on me, on my ankle, rebar through my ankle on my leg, rebar through my ankle,” Bradley said.Around her was the sound of chaos.“I could hear my mom, I could hear my kids screaming, I heard my sister screaming for help,” Bradley said. And then her own voice joined their screams.“The firefighters heard me and said, ‘Keep screaming.’ I said, ‘I’m over here, I’m over here.’ When they finally came over, they realized I was in water. The water pipes busted. The cold-water pipes busted, and this arm was trapped in ice; the whole thing was in ice, with a rock on top of it. This leg was trapped from the floor down,” Bradley said.When rescuers were able to reach her, they delivered an unthinkable choice; to save her life, they would have to take her leg.“I said no, cut my leg off,” Bradley said. “Because I can always get another leg. I can’t replace my life. You know. That just wasn’t; that option was just not up for me. Cutting my leg was the only choice for me.”And with a pocketknife, they took her leg. She said that wasn’t the worst part. It was when she heard the screams of others stop.“I kinda already knew. Because I heard the rest of the building fall. I heard the rest of the floor falling. And my kids and my mom weren’t screaming anymore,” Bradley said.The rest of her family was goneThree-year-old Peachlyn Bradley, 3-month-old Gabreon Bruce and her mother, Cheryl Hammon, were dead.I was in ICU. I remember being in ICU,” Bradley said after she regained consciousness. “They were, like, avoiding telling me, but I told them, ‘Look, you don’t have to. I already know.’ I knew my sister was still alive. I knew my sister was still alive because I heard them rescue her. But I already knew my mom and my two kids were gone.”She and her sister survived, but the rest of her family was gone.“It’s been hard. I always wonder, I always, what it’s going to be like. As smart as my daughter was, she would’ve been in college now,” Bradley said. “My baby, I could just see him being a very questioning kid, very smart, too, just very quiet and shy.”Her mother was her inspiration.“My mom, she was, wow, she was a wonderful woman. She was a mother raising two girls by herself, working two jobs,” Bradley said.’God is my strength’And through it all, Bradley found something to hold onto.“God. God is my strength. God has been my strength even when I was in that building,” Bradley said. “When I was in the hospital, the therapy that I had, I got told that I was going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, and I told them, ‘No, I’m not.’”Get the latest news stories of interest by clicking here.Because in the face of evil, Bradley lived to tell her story.“For myself. I was the hero for myself. For once in a lifetime, I decided to stand up and decide I was going to make things better for myself,” Bradley said.Top HeadlinesTIMELINE: Storms with tornado and damaging wind threat possible Friday in OklahomaAstronomers measure the mind-blowing power and speed of black hole jets for the first timeStrait of Hormuz is fully open, Trump and Iranian foreign minister saysFamily vanished while getting Christmas tree in 1958. Their remains were just identifiedFord recalls 1.4 million F-150 pickup trucks to fix a gearshift issue