This month, The Bridge debuts a new semi-regular section, “In our own words…” In this section, we hope to feature contributions from people in our neighborhoods — not so much opinion pieces as personal essays and reflections on topics or events.

As part of the column, we will feature every three months — in partnership with the Southeast Minneapolis Council on Learnng (SEMCOL) — area schoolchildren responding to a question or questions on a particular topic. This month, we asked students from Sue Beiersdorf’s fourth-grade class at Pratt School in Prospect Park what they thought about or had been talking about at school or at home in regards to the collapse of the I-35W bridge. We will feature students from other area schools in the future.

Tayasir Dahir

It looked and sounded like an earthquake. My mom went over that bridge at about 3:14 or 3:30. My aunty was friends with that Somali lady that died. And the worst thing is she had a baby in her stomach. And she had a 2-year-old in the back seat. My aunty almost went on it, but she changed her mind. I feel so very sorry for the people that came from work that died and went through that horrible moment.

Eva Shellabarger

Well, what I think about the 35W bridge collapse is that there were a lot of close calls. Even my mom was about to drive on it. You would think that it would never happen, but it did. I saw the bridge in the water from the Stone Arch Bridge. I feel sad about the people who died. When will it get rebuilt again? I guess the bridge was weak and no one knew that it would someday fall.

Melaina Bordeaux

My mother was coming from work and she was about to go on the 35 West bridge, but something in her mind kept saying to stay away from the 35 West bridge. So she did and she took Broadway. But when I was at home I watched the news and it said that the 35 West bridge had just collapsed. I said in my mind, “That’s the bridge that my mother takes.” And before I was about to cry I heard keys in the door. So I stopped and it was my mother, and I was so happy that she was alive. So I ran up to her and gave her a big hug and she said, “Why are you hugging me?” and I showed her the TV. And then she said that she was lucky to be alive and then she started telling how she knew why not to go on that bridge. She said something bad would happen and something did, the bridge collapsed. So I started knowing when I cried how much I loved my mother. So here’s my advice: give your mother nothing but love.

last revised: November 1, 2007

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