Family of U.S. man killed in London attack "focusing on the positive"
LONDON -- The family of the Utah man killed in last week’s terror attack in the heart of London say they are focusing on the positive, as they believe he would have done himself.
Kurt Cochran’s wife Melissa was not at a news conference in London on Monday morning -- she’s still in the hospital recovering -- but 11 of her family members were, many of them having flown all the way from Utah to be by her side.
“Her health is steadily improving, and she has been strengthened by the presence of her family,” Melissa’s brother, Clint Payne, said. “She is so grateful for the outpouring of love and generosity.”
He said she is still recovering from a broken leg and rib. Her mother Sandra said she’s also just coming to terms with the attack that took her husband’s life.
Immediately after the attack, a photo emerged of Melissa laying on the ground, bloodied, but with strength in her eyes.
The family said Monday that it was “heart-wrenching for us to see this picture of her,” but that every day she’s getting stronger.
“We know that Kurt wouldn’t bear ill feelings towards anyone and we can draw strength as a family from that,” Payne said. “His whole life was an example of focusing on the positive. Not pretending that negative things don’t exist, but not living our life in the negative -- that’s what we choose to do.”
Melissa and Kurt were on the last day of their dream European vacation when they became a couple of the first victims in the attack. They were walking across Westminster Bridge when the speeding car struck them on the sidewalk.
Kurt went over the side of the bridge and fell onto a concrete slab 20 feet below.
In all, four people were killed when Khalid Massood drove his car down the sidewalk before crashing into a fence around the Houses of Parliament and then stabbing a police officer.