In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing

I called David Westin back at home. I figured I could get out in an hour and a half. I’d need to give the kids some food, talk to them, and get on the road. I silently congratulated myself for having organized our things the night before and laid out some clothes. I would need to appear as calm and in control as possible. No matter what size blaze was raging around us, I was determined my children would not smell smoke.

“We’re having a hard time keeping a lid on the story, Lee,” David told me. “We’re going to need to release it to the media.” It was already midafternoon in Iraq. The attack had happened around noon; surely Baghdad was already buzzing with the news. The media was only holding off in deference to the family.

“Go ahead,” I said, understanding a firestorm might follow. “Our two families have been told.”

“Okay,” David replied, his voice heavy. It would be a dreadful and emotional day at ABC bureaus all around the world, and David Westin knew it.

“David, what do I say to the kids? I have to go tell the kids now.” A wail began to creep up the base of my throat. I was circling a set of stairs right outside the hotel entrance, and was crying softly. A fresh wave of morning walkers with coffee cups eyed me with skepticism, no doubt convinced I was a hysterical type, a woman with a hormone imbalance.

“Do you want to talk to Sherrie?” David’s wife was a onetime PR person for ABC who worked at Sesame Workshop. I knew her to be a calm, measured person. Surely she’d know what to say, I reasoned.

David handed the phone to Sherrie. She outlined a strategy for dealing with my two different-aged pairs of kids and gave me some phrases that would let the kids know it was serious but that I was in control. Her empathetic yet confident voice made me cry again. I felt terror rising in my throat but the General choked it back. I hung up and proceeded to the hotel elevator. I took a deep breath as it rose and marveled that this was actually happening. My husband had been hit by a bomb in Iraq. I was about to tell my children. I let out my breath, feeling a pressing weight as the elevator doors opened and I headed back to our room.

Excerpted from In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing by Lee and Bob Woodruff, Random House, 2007. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. www.randomhouse.com. For more information on the Bob Woodruff Family Fund, go to www.bobwoodrufffamilyfund.org.