If you've ever doubted the power of words you should read this letter, written to the family of Frank Ciulla, a victim of the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, by the Connells, the family who discovered his body on their land. It was written after the Ciullas had visited the Connells several years after the bombing. Here's a small excerpt:
It was just wonderful to meet you face-to-face. We needed to talk to you all too. As you said, we will get to know Frank through you. He was never just "another victim" to us. For months we called him "Our Boy." Then we found out his name. He was "Our Frank." Please believe me we were deeply affected by his coming to us. We will never forget our feelings seeing him there, a whole-bodied handsome man, the life gone out of him in a twinkling. We were just past trying to grasp the whole thing.
Then to have to leave him there, but he was visited throughout the night by police and a doctor and we went back again in the morning. He was a fellow man and he had come to us in the saddest way. So now through him we have you in our hearts, and please, we want you all to know that you are welcome here whenever you come.
The Connell Family
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