Marathon Madness....

“I wonder if we could soften our hearts and minds and our eyes. I wonder if we could give our eyes a break.” ~ Amy Poehler

What a week.  Sometimes there are truly no words, but I must try.  As I already said in my last post, Marathon Monday I was in my Hx3 scrubbing the bathroom and kitchen.  When my phone rang, I literally tripped on the self-made obstacle course trying to reach it.  After picking it up off the floor, I saw that Katie had called, and there was a text from my Niece asking if I was ok?  I called Katie.  She asked where I was, her voice panic-stricken. “I’m in NYC.”  “Oh, thank, God”, she said, “There’s been two explosions at the Marathon near the finish-line, and it’s ugly and bloody.”  (She works at MGH, Massachusetts General Hospital, which would receive many of the innocents wounded. I work less than a block from the Marathon Finish Line.  We never work Marathon Monday as we, nor our patients, would be able to get to the office.  They forgot.)  I hung up, numb, confused, and scared.  I texted my Niece and said I was fine and in NYC.    

We don’t have live TV at the Hx3.  We have some little box and get Hulu and NetFlix.  I called Kristi at work and asked how to get the news, and told her what happened.  I got CNN on my laptop.  Oh, my God.  9-11 all over, again.  In the twelve years since that horrifically beautiful September morning, I have become complacent, and feel safe again.  This is the USA.  We don’t have bombings occurring regularly on our soil, never mind in our own hometown.   That is for the unfortunate populations of so many other countries, in lands across oceans.  

Instead of leaving very late Monday night, as planned, I got on an early Tuesday morning bus that would get me to work just in time for my first patient at noon.  (The Girls were already freaking out enough without worrying about me.)  Well, I needn’t have worried about getting to work on time.  Our office is located on the crime scene of the blasts.  One of the many things I remember considering in the weeks that followed 9-11 was all the small businesses, and their employees, that were affected.  I know, I thought, most are alive and safe.  First consider, and pray for, the lives lost, their families and loved ones, and the victims hurt, physically and mentally.  But, one of the lines we tell ourselves often since that day, “Life must go on, or ‘they’ve’ won.”  Well, bills must be paid, etc, in order for life to go on.  I now will learn those answers for myself, as we have not been able to work for a week.  (Maybe that’s why God created tax returns..)

The selfish me thought  “I could have stayed in NYC longer.”  But, I am so glad I came home.  One thing I am learning is that once a parent; it is a life-long “job”.  My older Daughter “needed” her Mom (I so love being needed still) and comfort food.   Tuesday night she took the T out and we had dinner in our family’s favorite little Mexican restaurant, La Paloma, on Newport Ave in Quincy.  Nowadays, that usually includes some shopping therapy at Marshalls, and /or, Ocean State Job Lot across the street.

Then we went to my Mom’s, or Nonnie’s per my Ladies and all her Grandchildren.  We had a lovely tea party.  It is such a normal, interesting, fact, that in times such as these, we all want to surround ourselves with those we love most.  (Kristi went to Queens to be with her college roommate to “ drink wine and dance it out grey’s style to Boston themed songs on her balcony”!)

Friday morning I was awoken by my phone at 6:15am.  Katie was unnerved.  She hadn’t slept well all week, another very normal reaction to the week’s events, and she wasn’t alone.  Sirens kept her from ever really sleeping Thursday night.  Finally, giving up, she turned on the TV at 4am and was totally freaked out giving me til 6:15 before she needed to talk with someone.  I turned my TV on, and we “watched” the unfolding events together. (It turns out that Katie lives less than a mile from the Brothers’ apartment in Cambridge.)  It became an eleven hour odyssey of a real life NCIS show that I could not turn off nor walk away from.  It’s now midday Saturday, and I have the same pj’s on that I have been wearing for almost 3 full days. (I know, TMI).  I don’t believe I have to share the story.  If you live anywhere near Boston, have loved ones here, or just like after 9-11, are an American, you know it, feel it, and will never forget it.

Thank you, President Obama, Governor Patrick, Mayor Menino,  the Police, Fire, Military, etc., First Responders (including, and maybe especially, all the Lay People who became First Responders on Monday), the Families and Friends of the Innocents killed, and forever hurt.  Your Leadership, Professionalism, Grace, Dignity, Empathy, and Compassion guided us through a week that words cannot fully describe.

"Scripture tells us to 'run with endurance the race that is set before us.'  As we do, may God hold close those who’ve been taken from us too soon. May He comfort their families. And may He continue to watch over these United States of America." 
President Barack Obama, Thursday April 18, 2013 @ The Interfatih Service in Boston