Invisible Threads

Exhibit by Devaki Murch, Operation Babylift Collective

Inspired by the commitment and dedication of the caregivers, volunteers, and veterans. Invisible Threads is an archival storytelling exhibit born from a deeply personal sense of gratitude. Devaki Murch was one of the babies on the first Operation Babylift flight out of Vietnam, a flight that ended in a crash on April 4, 1975. She doesn’t have a baby book or hospital bracelet. What she does have are front-page headlines, a nursery name, and her name printed on a survivor manifest.

For years, the only version of her story she knew was the narrative told by others, journalists, historians, teachers, and politicians. But slowly, through the emergence of documentaries, memoirs, community websites, and social media, a new thread (literally) began to appear. Then another. And another. Until a tapestry began to form, not clean or symmetrical, but knotted, tangled, and full of texture.