Just as I was finishing the last post Benjy came downstairs to tell me his friend's mom said there had been an explosion at the Boston Marathon. Saskia and I looked at each other and shook our heads. You know how messages get garbled in transmission. We figured someone got their wires crossed somewhere along the line.
It turned out Benjy's friend was right. Two bombs at the finish line, at least two people dead, scores more hurt. All those people, all that pain and loss, in my beautiful city. I really did not think it would happen.
The bombs went off around 3 pm, when the greatest number of runners were coming through the finish. At 3 pm, Benjy and I were supposed to be on our way to Mass General for his psychiatry appointment. Normally I drive him through the city to avoid the highway, which scares him. We would have been right near that finish line, except of course you can't drive there on Marathon Monday.
As it turns out we canceled the appointment. I couldn't get Ben's buy-in on taking the Mass Pike. If we had gone through with it, I am not sure we'd even have gotten there, as part of our journey would have been along Storrow Drive, which hugs the Charles River, and which passes fairly close by Copley Square, which is where the bombs were detonated. Even if we'd made it, Mass General would have been CHAOS, as that's where a lot of the injured have been taken.
Wow. Today is a darker day than I thought. Sure, we've got sun, but in Copley Square they had two huge plumes of smoke and dust. It rained glass. People lost lives and limbs.
Benjy and I are fine, physically, at least, and I am grateful for that. But I am sadder, in a general kind of way, than I've been in a long time.
I am sending healing thoughts to all those who suffered fear, pain, and loss today in my beautiful city. Today it was a City of Nightmares.
Ohhhhh man!!!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you cancelled. My thoughts and prayers are with you, and with everyone in Boston today.