MRS Joan Wilson was on her way to Belfast for the publication of a biography of her late husband, Gordon, when she heard the news, writes Suzanne Breen, in Belfast. Warrant Officer James Bradwell had died from injuries sustained in the IRA's bomb attack on British army headquarters in Lisburn.
"I felt so very, very sad," she said. "I thought of the effect on his wife and children. A woman has just lost her husband. Three children have been left without a father. I've been through a bombing. I lost a daughter. I know what they're feeling."
Mrs Wilson is delighted with Gordon Wilson: An Ordinary Hero by Alf McCreary, published yesterday. Her husband died 15 months ago after eight years of campaigning to end paramilitary violence.
"Gordon would have been appalled by the IRA bomb on Monday," Mrs Wilson said. "He honestly thought that we would never slide back into violence. But he wouldn't have, wanted people to despair. He would have told them to go on, working and hoping for peace."
Mr McCreary said: "If Gordon was alive, he would be going to the peace rally at City Hall today. He had been through it all. He lost his daughter Marie in the Enniskillen bombing in 1987.
"He went on to talk to the IRA, and they obviously didn't listen to him, but he knew that the only way forward was through dialogue. He would have known that this was a time to fry harder and breathe more life into the peace process. He wouldn't have given up."