I found this transcript at
http://abcnews.go.com/onair/nightline/NightlineIndex.html


   Ellen's Insights
   Nightline
   Thursday, August 5, 1999
   (This is an unedited, uncorrected transcript.)

   TED KOPPEL It'll be a year on Saturday, two bombs only minutes apart,
   one at the US embassy in Tanzania, the other at the US embassy in
   Nairobi, Kenya. That was the truly devastating one, 213 people killed,
   close to 5,000 injured. Most of the dead and injured were Kenyans.
   Nearly 200 of them lost their sight. Half of those recovered. Eighty
   remained visually impaired. Twenty will never see again.
   That's what we tend to forget sometimes. For most of us, it's simply
   the anniversary of a disaster, my God, has it been a year already and
   then back to our lives again. But there are literally thousands of
   people whose physical and psychological lives will never be the same
   again and many thousands more in their immediate families, all of them
   trying to cope.
   Life changed in one blinding explosion for an American woman by the
   name of Ellen Bomer. She actually worked for the Commerce Department
   but was on temporary assignment to the embassy in Nairobi. She was in
   her ground floor office at the embassy when the truck bomb went off.
   She was knocked unconscious, trapped under heavy debris and didn't
   regain consciousness until four hours later.

   ELLEN BOMER The bombing is something that I've never seen. I've never
   seen the aftermath. I can only imagine based on other's descriptions.

   1ST EYEWITNESS The bomb blast got the back end of the embassy, I
   believe.

   2ND EYEWITNESS It is the worst thing I've ever seen.

   DON BOMER I was at home in Jeda, Saudi Arabia (ph) and somewhere
   between 11 and 12 in the morning on the 7th of August 1998 I received
   a phone call, excuse me. A friend called and said there had been a
   bombing in Nairobi near the embassy. My wife was on temporary duty at
   the embassy. For 10 hours, I didn't know that she was even injured.

   ELLEN BOMER When I came to underneath the building and under the
   debris, you know, I was on my back like a turtle and I couldn't move.
   I knew it was a bomb but I thought that it had happened really quickly
   and it wasn't until many, many months later that I learned that the
   bomb was about 10 or 10:30, I think, and they didn't dig me out until
   about 2:30 in the afternoon. And then I remember thinking I'm just
   pinned under this wreckage, you know? I'm just under this debris, but
   I'm OK. And then I thought no, I can't see. I can't open my eyes. You
   know, I immediately had that quick oh my God, I'm blind. And then I
   remember thinking dear God, please don't let me be totally blind. And
   then I started bargaining. I started thinking OK, God, just let me
   have one eye. You know, if I could just have one eye, you could have
   the other one. Just give me one. I'm glad I'm alive but could I have
   one eye? And my anxiety level was building and then I remember
   thinking OK, Ellen, got to stay calm. If you want to get out of this
   you have to stay calm. You have to let people know you're here.
   And so then I started waving my right hand and I remember I was saying
   I'm over here, please, I'm over here. And it seemed like almost
   instantly that I could feel people pulling things off me. I couldn't
   see `em, but I could feel it. I couldn't hear very well but they got
   me out. Then I remember they put me on a stretcher.

   DON BOMER She looked like she had been shot in the face with gravel
   from a shotgun and I just about passed out.

   ELLEN BOMER I, I remember, at one point I don't even know where it was
   but at one time I was laying on the stretcher and all of a sudden it
   just, every, the room just kept getting brighter and brighter and all
   of a sudden I just started feeling very relaxed and comfortable and
   not afraid. And I looked over to my left and my son was standing
   there. Well, my son is deceased and he was killed in 1987. And he was
   standing there and he had on a white robe and he had his hands
   outstretched and I remember looking at him and thinking oh gosh, John,
   you're here so this must mean that I'm going to die. And I remember I
   stretched out my hand and just as I was putting my hand in my son's
   hand, I mean I was probably, oh, I don't know, six or seven inches
   away, I got sucked back. And it was the strangest thing. At the
   instant that happened I thought no, I don't want to go. I don't want
   to go back. But then it was like oh, OK. So John is in heaven. Oh, OK,
   that's great. And it was like OK, Ellen, it's not your time to come.
   So you have to go back and you just have to lay there and let them
   make you well.
   I told my husband, I said well it's OK, I'm not going to die. It's OK,
   I'm not going to die. And so the inner peace that I gained from that
   experience in Nairobi really is what has sustained me. And it hasn't
   always been easy. I mean it was very difficult going through all the
   exams and all the surgeries at Walter Reed and there were some times
   when I really felt pretty blue but I always knew that I'm not going to
   die and I guess if you know that fundamental thing and you know that
   no matter what happens, no matter how painful it is or how much you
   want to cry about things because you're afraid and you're confused,
   it's OK because, you know, this is something you have to go through.
   And hopefully it'll be, it'll be better for the people who see you.

   TED KOPPEL In a moment, Ellen Bomer finds the tools and a mentor to
   begin to reclaim her independence.

   (Commercial Break)

   ELLEN BOMER I was grieving for the fact that as a blind person, you
   know, if I was blind I wouldn't be able to do anything anymore. I
   wouldn't be able to see the sky, I wouldn't be able to work, I
   wouldn't see my husband, I wouldn't see my grandson. I was really
   scared and I would go to bed at night crying and Don would be crying
   and it was really very traumatic for both of us. And so somewhere
   toward the end of October it became evident to both of us that we were
   going to have to find some support group.
   Here's the nose. Big nose!

   DON BOMER Yeah, it sure is.

   ELLEN BOMER Dr Schneider and Linda Schneider came into my life and my
   husband's life.

   HAROLD SCHNEIDER Well, that's the better part of the body here to
   emphasizing some others I can think of.

   ELLEN BOMER We were just very impressed with him and Linda and they
   were both such caring people and positive people. And it was like wow,
   you know, he's blind, Linda's sighted and Don is sighted so it was
   like this is the family we need, you know? This will give us the
   nurturing and the support that we need to get through this.

   HAROLD SCHNEIDER I thought when I first talked to you on the phone in
   October that you sounded like a scared child wandering the wilderness
   and that you were sort of bamboozled about what you ought to do. I
   mean ...

   ELLEN BOMER That's exactly how I felt. That's exactly how I felt. And
   if you'd have come without that cell phone, I mean I was just so
   mesmerized and here's somebody who's blind can dial these numbers. And
   it was like yes! I can do this!

   HAROLD SCHNEIDER I've been blind since birth but that hasn't stopped
   me from being a husband, a father and effective in all other parts of
   my life.
   I mean Braille, that's what it's used for.
   Along with my career, I've been a volunteer mentor for many people
   who've lost their vision, including Ellen Bomer. It wasn't just the
   attitudes about blindness you had to learn, it's the, you know, the
   basic skills to function as a normal everyday human being.

   ELLEN BOMER Oh, man, it's hard.

   HAROLD SCHNEIDER I suggested that Ellen go to the Louisiana Center for
   the Blind to begin her rehabilitation.

   UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER Things that irritate you, Braille, don't say
   that.

   ELLEN BOMER No, I like Braille.
   B-A something E-A.

   UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER Uh-huh. What's your last letter?

   ELLEN BOMER Braille is a hands on way of reading. So while I can
   memorize the code, until I have the brain to finger connection, it's
   very difficult. But I've got to persevere and make it happen because I
   am not going to go from an educated person to an illiterate. Earl
   Street.

   UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER Yes.

   ELLEN BOMER When I was first told about Louisiana Center for the Blind
   one of the things I was told was that I would be asked to wear sleep
   shades. And I thought, you know, when I first heard this my thought
   was how can they take away the little vision that I have? I mean that
   must be absolutely horrid, horrid. It wasn't so much the fact of the
   sleep shades as it was the fact that I really was blind and that I had
   to really come face to face with that. But, you know, it's a lot
   easier to pay attention with sleep shades on than it is without `em
   because that little bit of vision that you have you use.
   I can't because I've got a lot of shrapnel in my body. I guess I'm
   kind of like that ship, it's slowly being turned and with each turn
   and each directional change I'm getting stronger and stronger and
   stronger and I'll be back. It may take me a few more months, but I'll
   be back.

   TED KOPPEL Ellen Bomer is here in Washington for a State Department
   ceremony on Saturday marking the one year anniversary of the embassy
   bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. I'll be talking with her and with the
   man she calls her mentor, Harold Schneider, in a moment.

   (Commercial Break)

   TED KOPPEL Our story this evening and the one we'll be bringing you
   tomorrow night were produced by Ralph Barrens (ph) and a young
   photographer, David Snyder, (ph) who has spent much of the past decade
   documenting the blind. He draws his interest in the subject from his
   own life experience. Both of his parents are blind. His father, whom
   you've already met, Harold Schneider, a consultant to the National
   Federation of the Blind, joins me now as does Ellen Bomer, one of the
   survivors of last year's embassy bombing in Nairobi.
   Tell me the difference between the two of you, Ellen, if you can. This
   may be a better question for Dr Schneider. You're both blind but with
   you it's a recent experience, for him it's been a lifetime experience.

   ELLEN BOMER I feel like a baby who's learning to walk. I'm learning to
   crawl first.

   TED KOPPEL How far along are you?

   ELLEN BOMER Oh, I guess I'm probably about nine months.

   TED KOPPEL I mean as we see you doing these things, and we'll see a
   lot more of it tomorrow, but as we see you doing them, I wonder, for
   example, how well do you do with the Braille? Can you read a Braille
   newspaper yet?

   ELLEN BOMER No, sir, I can't. But I can read my name and I can write.
   I could probably write you a letter in Braille. My instructor would be
   pleased with that.

   TED KOPPEL I couldn't read it.

   ELLEN BOMER Oh, well, I probably couldn't either. That's the problem.
   I can write it but I can't read it. But I'm learning and I will
   conquer it.

   TED KOPPEL Boy, I'll bet you will. I mean if there is one thing that
   is quite clear, Dr Schneider, it is that this is one remarkably
   determined woman you've got under your care.

   HAROLD SCHNEIDER Absolutely. She's probably the bravest person that
   I've ever met in my life.

   TED KOPPEL Why do you say that?

   HAROLD SCHNEIDER Well, I've mentored blind people as part of my work
   with the National Federation of the Blind for more than 30 years. I
   started with Vietnam War vets in the '60s when I was in college and
   then have mentored people since then and Ellen has faced her blindness
   more bravely and more defiantly than most other people that I've ever
   met. And she has done it basically to a certain extent with my help
   and the help of the National Federation of the Blind and our members.
   And that, but she is, she meets us halfway. That is, she wants to do
   it. She wants to be all the way back and that's the difference.

   TED KOPPEL Let me focus for a moment on a couple of words that you
   have used, and Ellen, I want to ask you about them?

   ELLEN BOMER OK.

   TED KOPPEL He spoke a moment ago about your defiance, coming at this
   in a defiant way. What's he talking about?

   ELLEN BOMER I am not going to be beaten. I, the bombing took away my
   vision but it didn't take away me. I'm still here and I'm still alive
   and I'm an American and I'm proud to be an American. That isn't going
   to change.

   TED KOPPEL And it requires sort of a certain damn it, I'm not going to
   let this get me down, doesn't it?

   ELLEN BOMER Yes, it does.

   TED KOPPEL I mean you can't, you can't spend too much time feeling
   sorry for yourself?

   ELLEN BOMER No, because I'm alive and I'm not going to die. So I have
   to, I have to be true to whatever it is I'm supposed to do and I
   figure if I'm open enough and I maintain a survivor mentality that
   some day this bright light's going to go on and I'm going to know what
   it is I'm supposed to do.

   TED KOPPEL Sighted people tend to be a little uncomfortable around
   blind people, Dr Schneider, don't they, because they're not quite sure
   how sympathetic they need to be, how helpful they need to be.

   HAROLD SCHNEIDER That's right. The real problem with Ellen's blindness
   was not her blindness. She'd never encountered a blind person before.
   She had all the negative attitudes about blindness that pervade the
   sighted public. I mean, they just have no expectations of blind
   people. They don't consider blind people whole complete human beings
   and the training center that Ellen is attending at the Louisiana
   Center for the Blind tries to teach the students there that yes, we
   are whole, complete human beings. The National Federation of the Blind
   tries to do that in its conventions. People come there scared out of
   their mind and they leave there feeling whole and complete because
   they went to a convention by themselves and they could get around and
   go to the meetings and it gave them self-confidence. And that's part
   of what it's about. You have to change the attitudes both of the blind
   person themselves and the sighted public.

   TED KOPPEL Do you remember, Ellen, your attitudes toward the blind
   before you became blind yourself? In other words, do you still have
   one foot in, at least in your memory bank, one foot in each camp?

   ELLEN BOMER Yes, I do and that's part of it. I, it's difficult to know
   what's expected of you because I don't, I didn't know anyone that was
   blind and if you don't know anyone, all you know is what you, the
   stereotypes are, what you see in movies, what you read in books. I
   couldn't tell you, maybe in my whole life I've seen five people blind
   and they had dogs and they didn't seem to be too hip about what they
   were doing. I mean I don't know, I didn't know them personally. But it
   was like my eyes are gone now, now I don't have anything. I can't do
   this, I can't do that and Harold just walking into that hotel room at
   the Malone House (ph) saying yes you can, yes you can, you know,
   Joanne Wilson (ph) called me from the Center in Louisiana and she
   asked me, she said well, what is it you want to do that you can't do
   now? And I said well, I want to crochet, I want to knit. She said oh,
   you can do that. I said how can I do that? I can't see. She said you
   don't have to see. And it's just part of my rehab, I guess, is
   learning to know or knowing, I mean intellectually I comprehend but
   knowing it and making it part of me because I was sighted for 52
   years. You know, when we talk about Braille, when you tell me to write
   the word read I think in cursive, R-E-A-D, you know? I don't think in
   Braille. And so it's just, like I say, I'm learning to crawl and then
   I'll be walking soon, I hope.

   TED KOPPEL Dr Schneider, we're almost done for tonight. I want you to
   give our audience a sense of what we're going to be looking at
   tomorrow, which really is the education of Ellen Bomer, in some
   respects, right? Or the reeducation of Ellen Bomer. In a couple of
   lines sort of summarize what you knew she would have to go through and
   what you know she's still going to have to go through.

   HAROLD SCHNEIDER Ellen has to go through an intensive training course
   to learn how to be blind and to learn the skills of blindness.

   TED KOPPEL And as to what still lies ahead of her?

   HAROLD SCHNEIDER Ellen is probably about a third of the way through
   her rehabilitation. She's got two thirds to go in my opinion. That may
   or may not be what other people think, but that's what I think. And I
   think, I have every confidence that Ellen will come through that and
   graduate from the Louisiana Center for the Blind with flying colors.
   She was a literate person when she was sighted. She loves to write
   both on a computer and she will, she'll write in Braille and I know
   that she has a book in the works and I'm sure it'll be a fascinating
   one.

   TED KOPPEL I'm sure it will and I thank you Dr Schneider and Ellen
   Bomer. We'll be talking to you again tomorrow, so I very much
   appreciate your being here today.

   ELLEN BOMER Thank you.

   TED KOPPEL I look forward to talking with you for our program
   tomorrow. We'll preview part two of Ellen Bomer's story in just a
   moment.

   (Commercial Break)

   TED KOPPEL Tomorrow on Nightline, they say they don't want your pity,
   only your respect. We'll show you the annual convention of the
   National Federation of the Blind where Ellen Bomer was a featured
   speaker.

   ELLEN BOMER And I know that and so I'm here today and I will be a
   spokesperson, I will go anywhere I can go, do anything I can do, lend
   my support to make the rest of the world know that we are out there
   and we do know who we are.

   TED KOPPEL Part two of Ellen's Insights, the Nightline Friday night
   special, tomorrow.
   And that's our report for tonight. I'm Ted Koppel in Washington. For
   all of us here at ABCNEWS, good night.

   Search for more on:
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   S U M M A R Y
   Nightline profiles Ellen Bomer who is struggling to live without sight
   after the Nairobi terrorist bombing blinded her one year ago.
   [LINK]


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