My son-in-law sat in a restaurant yesterday afternoon one block from the finish line of the Boston Marathon. He heard the bombs exploding and simply thought that it was celebratory cannon fire as part of the festivities. He survived the violent and tragic end of the race.
Within 10 minutes, police entered the restaurant and ordered everyone to evacuate, without any explanation. Everyone left in an orderly manner. He heard sirens blaring. Everyone was trying to figure out what was going on. They tried to use their cell phones to access the Internet or to text friends, but it was clogged from overuse. So he just started walking home.
It was very confusing for the people at Ground Zero who had no information. But the people who sat in front of their televisions knew the truth. He came upon a woman runner who told him that she had just run the 26 miles and was only a couple of hundred yards from the finish line, when the police stopped her and the race without any explanation.
She was very upset because she came all the way from Utica, New York, and had trained very hard for the event. She was totally disorientated, had no idea where she was and couldn’t reach her friends by text. So my son-in-law invited her to come home with him. They began the 3 mile walk, but the woman’s legs soon began hurting. My son-in-law then called my granddaughter to come and pick them up. She came and took them home.
Within a few hours, the runner was able to get through the overloaded circuits to text her friends who came and picked her up. She was fortunate, unlike my granddaughter’s neighbors who had been at the race. They were taken to the hospital. My granddaughter told me that both the mother and her teenage son had a leg amputated.
These traumatic events triggered painful and sorrowful memories for my son-in-law and granddaughter. His brother was killed in the 9/11 Attack on America. He was a pilot who was a passenger on United Airlines flight 93. It crashed in Pennsylvania after the passengers tried to regain control of the airplane, to prevent the terrorists from using it as a weapon of destruction.
Yesterday’s modern Boston Massacre should serve as a reminder to us all that evil can affect any of us and must be overcome by good. Let us pray for the eternal rest of the souls of the dead, for healing for the injured, for solace for their loved ones, in thanks for the survivors and the rescuers and for peace on earth.
Let us repair for the increasing random acts of violence in our modern culture of violence by being a prayerful people of peace, respecting the human dignity of each and every person.
Our Lady of America promised that she would protect our country if her statue was solemnly processed and displayed in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC. Let us pray that this is done soon!
Our Lady of America pray for us!
Please wear her medal of protection and pray the Novena to her for True Change and Hope for America.
