MINNEAPOLIS -- For Lois Welman, August 1 is always a busy day. It gives her the chance to remember one of the most difficult days of her life. It gives her the chance to connect with other survivors.
"We dropped 65 feet and as I was dropping I just prayed Jesus, this is it; we're going to die. But when I landed, the concrete was falling and you could hear crashing all over," Welman recalled. She was one of several people to watch Dan Kenney's 131-minute documentary on the 35W bridge collapse. Monday marks the fourth anniversary of the bridge collase.
"It just touches your heart, because everybody has been through a lot," Lois' husband Greg said, calling August 1 a day of infamy.
"It's an opportunity for them to share their stories. I get out of their way and let them share their hearts. There's like a healing in that," Kenney said after showing his film at the Grandview Theater in St. Paul.
Many of the families that watched the film then headed over to the brand new "Remembrance Garden" which sits between Gold Medal Park and the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis, in the shadow of the new 35W bridge.
The park officially opened Monday, the fourth anniversary of the tragedy. Using water to symbolize regeneration and stone to signify immortality and stability, the 81-foot by 10-foot garden offers a lot to the survivors and victims' families.
"The families wrote a personal message on each one of the columns, the light columns, so people could get to know who they were. They weren't just a name, they were a person," project designer Tom Oslund said.
There are 13 steel beams in memory of those who lost their lives. The names of the 171 survivors are etched in stone behind the beams, Lois Welman's among them.
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