Last Monday was like any other Monday for me. I had just come back from grocery shopping when I got a text from Adam telling me that he was ok, and not to worry he was no where near where the bombs went off. Bombs? At the marathon? What bombs?! I frantically turn on the news and am shocked at what I’m seeing. Is this seriously happening in Boston? This can’t be at THE Boston Marathon. I instantly started getting calls and texts from friends and family members and I reassure them that I was safe at home, and that Adam was about a mile away from the blast at work.
They had shut down the T, so I drove in town to get Adam at work. It was incredibly surreal to go into the financial district and see those who had crossed the finish line walking around with their well earned jackets, knowing what they had narrowly missed. Police/SWAT/FBI agents were scattered throughout the city, and I just wanted to get Adam and get home.
Over the next couple of days I think everyone living in and around the city was just living in a daze of disbelief. How could this had happened in our city? Why would someone do such a thing? Are these people still out there and what are they going to do next? Last week was a long week of waiting, glued to the news in hopes of some sort of development. Then on Thursday, photos of the suspects were released. Not the most clear images, but their faces were out there, someone had to know who they were.
Friday morning, Adam woke up to go to work and flipped on the news, and they were reporting that one of the suspects had been killed and suspect #2 was still out there, on the run. We learned that they had shut down the city of Boston and informed us that we should be on lockdown in our homes. As details kept coming in, seeing how he fled to Watertown and SWAT teams were going from home to home pulling people out of bed to search for this wanted man. We were again in a surreal/dream-like state. Is this seriously happening here? It looked like a war zone out there. We’re not too far from Watertown and it really hit home when they started searching Cambridge and located the suspects home, which is about a mile or so from our house. Adam and I were glued to the news all day, hoping they’d catch him.
Right around 6, they lifted the lockdown and told people to live their life like they normally would. Do activities like it was any normal Friday night. We headed to the pub around the corner from our house with Dave and Kate and it was packed. People were a little stir crazy, that’s for sure. We sat down at our table, ordered, and continued watching the news. Then it broke that they had found suspect #2, in a boat of all places. We took to social media which seemed to be about 5 minutes ahead of the news. Finally, they announced that after another shoot out, they had the suspect in custody! The bar ERUPTED with cheers, hollers and chants of “USA! USA!” could be heard not only in the bar, but through the streets.
Never had I been more proud of the city I’ve called home for 7 years and amazed at how quickly everything happened. Adam and I took a walk on Saturday morning up to Teele Square to pay our respects for the MIT officer who lost his life doing what he loved. It’s the least we could do.
I’ll get back to writing normal posts soon enough, but I ask that at 2:50 PM EST that you take a moment out of your crazy day, and remember what happened a week ago. Think about the victims whose lives were lost, those families that were touched by tragedy, and those who are still in the hospital recovering. Think how all the victims that were injured, were saved by the amazing medical staff at the Boston hospitals Think about those who spent countless hours working to get the terrorists off the streets, making sure justice is served. Just take a moment, and be thankful.
We are #bostonstrong
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