Growing up, Taylor Miriam Henry never really understood the weight of her middle name. But now that she is one of 35 Remembrance Scholars, she said she is beginning to fully realize what it means.
Taylor was named after her mother’s best friend, Miriam Luby Wolfe, who was one of the 35 Syracuse University students killed in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing on Dec. 21, 1988.
“I always knew I was named after her, but I guess I formed more of a connection with her after going through the (Remembrance Scholar application) myself,” said Taylor, a senior film major.
But the similarities go beyond the namesake. Taylor said she knew as soon as she chose to go to SU that she wanted to be a Remembrance Scholar. Each year she volunteered during Remembrance Week, so when it came time to apply for the Remembrance Scholarship, there was no question about it. Remembrance Week is an annual event held at SU that honors and remembers the lives lost in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing. This year’s week runs through Saturday.
“We knew right from the beginning there was a poignancy about her going to Syracuse University and being named after Miriam,” said Taylor’s mother, Tami Henry.
Tami recalled worrying about Taylor flying in a plane for a class field trip to Washington, D.C. when she was younger.
That’s obviously a fear of mine — my children getting on flights without me. And Taylor’s my oldest so the first time she had to get on a flight without me, I went completely irrational and I was freaking out trying to figure out how I could go with them.Tami Henry
Tami added that Taylor was mad at her at the time because she didn’t really understand where that fear came from, but since then she has grown to fully understand the weight the tragedy has had on her family.
Now that she is participating in Remembrance Week as a scholar, Taylor said she has become more involved in every possible aspect and the whole event itself has become much more personal for her.
“(Miriam) would have been a huge part of my life,” Taylor said. “She would have been my godmother. Trying to put that into words for people, trying to put that into perspective for myself sometimes is really hard.”
Taylor said she never told any of the other Remembrance Scholars about her connection to Miriam, but slowly they’ve all come to realize it.
Hollis Kran, Taylor’s best friend since sophomore year, recalled one night last year when Taylor opened up to her about Miriam and her connection to the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.
Kran said she knew Taylor’s middle name was Miriam, but before that night she never knew the name’s significance. Kran said Taylor opened up about her connection to Miriam, and told her how she wanted to become a Remembrance Scholar.
Kran said she also noticed the resemblance between Taylor and Miriam, and when Taylor changed her profile picture on Facebook to a photo of Miriam, she didn’t immediately realize that the photo was not of Taylor.
Tami described the similarity between her daughter and Miriam as “a little freaky.”
“Taylor’s always had curly hair and over the years it’s relaxed a bit. But Miriam had incredibly curly hair and one of the things people always remember about Miriam is that when she walked, she walked with a bounce and that just made her hair bounce even more,” Tami said. “But (Taylor) does kind of look like her from a certain angle.”
Taylor said her sorority, Gamma Phi Beta, recently held a sisterhood event in which they all wrote notes to each other and put them in jars. She said many of her sorority sisters used the word “passionate” in their notes to her, a word that was often used to describe Miriam.
Frankie Prijatel | Staff Photographer
One of the ways Taylor is remembering Miriam during Remembrance Week is through Miriam’s favorite children’s book: “The Red Balloon” by Albert Lamorisse.
Taylor tied a single red balloon to the chair on the Quad that represents where Miriam sat on Pan Am Flight 103.
She has also used social media to share pictures of a red balloon near Miriam’s favorite places at SU.
For Miriam’s last birthday, Tami said she cross-stitched a clown with a bunch of balloons, making the middle one a big red balloon to reference her favorite book. She also added a quote from the book: “Friends will do all kinds of things for you. If the friend happens to be a balloon, it doesn’t fly away.”
“It’s just really special and poignant,” Tami said. “I kind of feel like she’s never really left me.”
Tami said in a way, Miriam is living on through Taylor, especially now that she is a Remembrance Scholar.
(Taylor is) just such a go-getter, which Miriam was as well.And there were just so many things she wanted to do that you know she wasn’t able to do, and I think in some ways in some of the work I’ve done and some of the work Taylor does, we’ll keep some of those ideals going.
Tami Henry
Taylor said she is most excited to share Remembrance Week with her family since her mom, grandmother and one of her younger sisters will be attending the Rose Laying Ceremony on Friday.
Every year during the Rose Laying Ceremony, Taylor said she’s had many thoughts and memories about Miriam that she’s wanted to say, and this Friday is her opportunity to finally share them.
Taylor said as Remembrance Week has been going on, more and more of the significance is clicking for her, making the whole experience that much more emotional.
“Just every part of this has become a very big part of my life. It’s just something that I want to continue being involved in,” Taylor said. “Look back, act forward — I want to continue acting forward in (Miriam’s) memory and honoring the person she was and honoring her dreams.”
Published on October 29, 2015 at 1:00 am
Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann
