Pan Am 103 Victim's Family Reflects on Death of Gadhafi

In the wake of Moammar Gadhafi's reported death earlier today by Boston.com, one local family wishes he would have gone through a trial first.

"I never uttered his word in my life before this happened," said Shrewsbury resident Ronald Boulanger, who lost his 21-year-old daughter, Nicole in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing in 1988, which Gadhafi organized. "I wish he had suffered and went through a trial, but I am sad he died."

Jeanine Boulanger, Nicole's mother who describes her daughter as a triple-threat when it came to her music, art and theater talent, said she is hopeful that the people of Libya will get the democratic form of government they deserve.

"The victims are the ones who always pay the price for foreign policy," Jeanine Boulanger said earlier today after hearing of Gadhafi's death. "The innocent, like Nicole and the other victims of Flight 103, pay the price and I am against any warhawks who are president."

"We should stay out of the middle east," Ronald Boulanger said. "Let them kill each other."

Jeanine Boulanger said she collapsed in the airport when she heard of the bombing of the flight, just days before Christmas in 1988.

"She was studying abroad in England when she was a student at Syracuse University," she said. "She had a beautiful voice and she never came home for Christmas."

Following her daughter's death, Boulanger got to know other parents of the victims of the flight and found support and took action to help others.

"If I did nothing with my grief, then I could not have empowered people to make a difference," Boulanger said. "I laughed for the first time with the other families of victims and some of them are my closest friends today. I realized I could inspire and inform others about their options and, as a group, we have reached out the families of victims of 9/11."

She said she transferred her grief into positive energy. "You, too, can do something and empower others to do something meaningful."

Another mother of a victim of Pan Am Flight 103 created sculptures of the families reflecting exactly what they felt at the moment they heard the news of the bombing.

"I collapsed on the floor of the airport and was being filmed by reporters," Boulanger said. "I've spoken to reporters and given lectures about the ethics of journalism because of the way I was treated."

She has also testified in Congress and attended the trials of the bombing suspects and was interviewed by CNN.com.

"I hope Gadhafi's death will allow the people of Libya to have the freedoms they so justly deserve and we hold dear," she said. "They are finally getting freedom from under a tyrannical regime—anger can reveal energy that can bring about a positive outcome."