Leading up to this
one-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombings, there was numerous continuous
coverage on the news, reminisces of the event itself, and how the lives of the rescuers
and the rescued were forever changed by it. Boston hospitals encouraged people to leave
messages on their enormous message boards in their front lobby or entrances to
commemorate this tragic yet heroic day for Boston. The blue and yellow BOSTON STRONG signs were
everywhere, especially near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Boylston
Street.
The bombings touched me personally as I was one of
the thousands of runners who did not complete the marathon that fateful
day. The days leading up to the
anniversary, my mind was filled with thoughts of the people who have been directly
affected by this event and it was difficult to escape such intrusive thoughts as
the news coverage was vast and incessant.
I went to view the exhibits of the paraphernalia left by people at the
makeshift memorial at Copley Square last year being displayed at the Boston Public Library with
the hundreds of pairs of running shoes as the most powerful symbol of our
resilience. The exhibitors noted, “…these
shoes carry three layers of meaning. First,
they are running gear, showing the wear form months of training. Second, they are good luck charms, with many
bearing pre-race decorations designed to help their owner summon the motivation
to run 26.2 miles. Finally, they are
eulogies, symbolizing the complex emotions these runners felt after the
bombing.”
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| Runner Shoes |
There
were messages from all over the world and poems of the inevitable arrival of
spring after every winter; hopes for recovery and new and exuberant life after
a long hard struggle against seemingly insurmountable obstacles. I was moved by the out-pouring of heart-felt
warm wishes.
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| At the Finish Line |
It was pouring on the day of the anniversary as
though Mother Nature showed empathy for the remembrance of this day. The wind blew fiercely as I fought against it
with my umbrella walking along Boylston Street towards the finish line of the
Boston Marathon, the 118th which will take place in six days. Many Bostonians were already lining up along
the street to mark the anniversary.
At
precisely 2:49 pm, a moment of silence was observed, a silence that was
shattered by the overwhelming outpouring of compassion and the display of
courage and resilience of a grieving city and its people despite that tragic
day.
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