The “fifth girl” and survivor of the Birmingham church bombing on Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963, reunited with the on-duty nurse who stayed by her side and tended to her care.
Sarah Collins-Rudolph, 71, met soon-to-be 101-year-old Rosetta “Rose” Hughes, the hospital nurse, and spoke with The Birmingham Times about everything they remember about that day.
Despite the chaotic hospital full of people impacted by the bombing, Hughes wasn’t assigned to do anything but care for Collins-Rudolph. The former nurse recalled the moment Collins-Rudolph arrived on the 10th floor of the University Hospital in Birmingham, also known as the “Eye” floor.
“When I saw her that Sunday,…she was just covered with soot and ashes [and blood],” Hughes remembered. “[It] looked like she was gone. …I thought she wasn’t going to wake up. …She was not moving.”
Hughes told the outlet that the hospital had to call other medical personnel from all across the city for assistance since many of their staff were off-duty that weekend. The doctor that tended to the then 12-year-old was off-duty but came in with his child. It’s believed that the doctor was named Dr. Robert S. Pearson.
“I remember they brought her to the emergency room, and I was working on the Eye floor,” Hughes said. “We had the surgery up there, and they sent her to eye surgery. …She was on a stretcher, and I took care of her until they called the doctor to come in.”
Collins-Rudolph remembered Hughes but never saw what she looked like due to the condition her eyes were in because of the explosion.
“It’s more than a blessing to meet [Hughes] because she took care of me,” she said about Hughes to The Birmingham Times. “When I was younger, I didn’t know how she looked or anything because I was practically blind then. So, just to see her now and know her is a blessing. She’s looking real good.”
She added that it was a “blessing” for her and Hughes to be reunited. “She’s such a nice lady. God kept us together this long to get together again. It’s been so many years, but He really has blessed us to come together again.”
Collins’ memories of being operated on are still vivid in her mind. She remembered the doctors working on her eyes, removing 20 to 26 pieces of glass from her eyes and face.
Collins had to wear bandages on her eyes until the doctor removed them a week later. The doctor tested the then 12-year-old’s vision and concluded she was instantly blinded in her right eye but would eventually be able to see out of her left eye.
“When [the doctor] was talking to my mother, I remember hearing him tell her that eventually, I would start seeing out of my left eye because I was real young, and the sight would start coming back,” Collins-Rudolph stated. “When I was getting ready to leave the hospital, I remember [the doctor] telling [my mother] to bring me back in February [1964] because they were going to have to remove my right eye, and that’s what they did. I went back in February, and that’s when they removed my right eye and fit me with a prosthetic.”
For the past 59 years, Collins-Rudolph dealt with sight issues and almost lost sight in the only eye she could see out of due to glaucoma.
Despite the act of hate being the reason behind her sight troubles, Collins-Rudolph had to pay for the procedures she underwent out of pocket.
The 71-year-old also remembered the day the bomb erupted inside the Birmingham church. She told the outlet that it was a good Sunday because it was “Youth Day,” where the youth did what the adults usually did, like collecting offerings.
Following Sunday school, Collins-Rudolph and her sister, then 14-year-old Addie Mae Collins, went inside the bathroom in the church basement. Denis McNair, 11; Carole Rosamond Robertson, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14, the
“I was waiting for class to [end], and I saw [Carole, Denise, and Cynthia] come in. We stayed in with them,” Collins-Rudolph said. “They went and used the restrooms while Addie and I were standing in the lounge. She was standing right by the couch, and the couch was right where they had placed the bomb. When [the girls] came out of the restroom, they all came out together and went over to Addie. That’s when Denise asked Addie to tie the sash on her dress. I was standing by the sink, and we all stood there waiting to see her tie it.”
She continued, “That’s when the bomb went off. Boom! By the time [Addie] reached her hand out to tie [Denise’s sash], the bomb went off. The debris came from the [shattered] glass window and blinded me. All I could do was say ‘Jesus!’ because it scared me so bad. Then I called out, ‘Addie! Addie!’ The first thing I thought was that they ran back into the Sunday school area. I didn’t have any idea that they all had perished.”
The four girls, McNair, Robertson, Wesley, and Collins, died immediately.
Collins-Rudolph was rescued by Samuel Rutledge, a deacon at the Sixteenth Street Church. The bombing damaged her mentality, causing her to resort to consuming alcohol and smoking marijuana since she didn’t have counseling. Eventually, her faith saved her.
George Rudolph, Collins-Rudolph’s husband, said he hasn’t seen strength like hers and served in the Vietnam War at 19.
“For my wife to survive what she went through and not hold any animosity toward the KKK because she forgave them, that’s a strong person,” he said. “When she said, ‘I forgive you,’ that was such a powerful statement. Very powerful. She is just a strong Black lady and amazing. I love my wife.”
