‘I am not a victim,’ says senior missionary injured in Brussels airport attack


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SALT LAKE CITY — Richard Norby said he couldn’t be better.

“I love life,” Norby said. “I love getting up every morning. “

Four months ago, he and his wife, Pam, were a senior missionary couple in Belgium. On the morning of March 22, Norby was at the Brussels airport with three young Latter-day Saint missionaries when a bomb went off.

“The first initial bomb threw us all to the floor, I lost contact or proximity of the missionaries,” Norby said. “I could see ceiling tiles coming down, I could see, at least in my mind, balls of fire, smoke and people screaming. The concussion of the bomb could have killed us. But I had a definite feeling I would not die and I was calm.”

Norby tried to help those around him but could not walk — his left calf was nearly gone and shrapnel was embedded in his back and legs — but the young missionaries found him.

“I pulled out my phone and called Pam, my wife, and let her know that there had been an explosion, that I had a broken leg (but) that I would be all right,” he said. “So, my wife was called, the missionaries are safe, I'll just wait for the doctors.”

Those doctors saw his life-threatening injuries and burns and placed him in a medically induced coma.

Richard Norby poses for a photo as he recovers in the hospital following a bombing in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo: Norby Family)
Richard Norby poses for a photo as he recovers in the hospital following a bombing in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo: Norby Family)

"I had a large, gaping wound in my right leg. They cleaned it out, but one night, I started to bleed out,” he said. “They found that a piece of shrapnel had cut a blood vessel. They gave me eight units of blood. I think it was touch and go, one way or another, for those first couple of days."

He was then transferred to the U. Medical Center's burn unit where doctors expected him to stay for up to six months, but just five weeks later they released him. The healing process went much more quickly than doctors anticipated.

“Our family would come to visit and I would ask a grandchild to say the prayer, then I knew why I was healed,” Norby said.

He has undergone skin grafts on his face, neck and both hands.

“(My) palms were burned,” he said. “When I was at the airport and I was trying to get up, I finally just laid there and lifted my hands up and it was like sheets of soot and I thought it was from the ceiling and realized it was from my skin coming off.”

Despite the severe injuries, Norby said he’s had a remarkable recovery.

Richard Norby laughs at an unrecognizeable photo of himself from his time in the hospital recovering from the March terrorist attack on the Brussels airport at home in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Norby was in Brussels serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (Photo: Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
Richard Norby laughs at an unrecognizeable photo of himself from his time in the hospital recovering from the March terrorist attack on the Brussels airport at home in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Norby was in Brussels serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (Photo: Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)

“From the airport, I haven't felt any pain and being intubated and put in a coma, I didn't feel any pain,” he said. “I don't have any recollection of any pain. So, that goes in the miracle column."

He also said he has not had flashbacks or nightmares.

“As far as terrorists, I've never thought of them,” Norby said. “I've thought of the people and I've thought of my family and the many miracles."

His first public appearance was July 4th as one of the grand marshals of the Provo Freedom Festival Grand Parade. He rode with former missionaries Mason Wells and Joseph Empey. Sister Fanny Clain is now serving her mission in Ohio. They are forever linked, Norby said, by this miracle.

“To me, the Brussels airport is a holy, sacred place,” Norby said. “I don't know why we were protected and others weren't. My heart goes out to those that were killed or injured, because I feel for them."

The fear of terrorists, he said, will not stop him from travel or service in the future.

“Am I going to be restricted from going to Europe, from going to airports? No,” Norby said. “Because I am not a victim. I'm a survivor. And terrorists want to instill terror. I refused to be terrorized."

The Norbys have five children and 16 grandchildren. He called them all together in the hospital for a "teaching moment about Brussels."

“This is not God's fault. We don't blame him. We don't turn our backs on him,” Norby told his family. “We live life. And he will watch over us, whatever that means, he will watch over us.”

“That's what I want them to remember,” he added. “I don't want them to remember the airport, I want them to remember the Savior."

Norby will eventually wear a brace on his left leg, but he has told the doctors that he looks forward to family barbecues and throwing a Frisbee with his grandchildren.

As the Norbys look forward, he said they have learned from this experience to take each day as a gift.

"From the time that blast went off, I didn't look around to see who I could blame,” Norby said. “There was no one to blame. This is life. And I'm happy to live it."

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