We Are Boston

Friday morning, I woke up at 4:45am.  I was at the airport, through security, and getting settled at my gate just before 6am.  And then I saw the news of what had taken place overnight.  

My neighbor, and a longtime family friend, is an MIT cop who works the night shift.  For a few hours, I didn't know if he was a victim.  Richard Donahue, the MBTA cop who was injured, lives a street over from my parents' house.

At my grandmother's birthday party, the reason I was going home, everyone I spoke to had some sort of connection.  "My son coached Martin Richard."  "Nick's friend worked with Krystle Campbell."

I only mention this because we always say that Boston is a small town, but it really clicked for me hearing about how close this was to so many people, how many families it had affected.

Friday was a terrifying day.  My flight landed at Logan, which amazed me, and then I was even able to get home on the shuttle bus, one of the only forms of transportation still running that morning.  I got home and parked myself on the couch for hours, watching the news, which seemed like a lack thereof.  After awhile, I couldn't torture myself any more so I took a nap, assuming that when I woke up, it would all be over.

It wasn't, so I went for a run, wearing my mom's Bruins tee that reads "Give Blood, Play Hockey".  The news still wasn't saying much, and then came the press conference where they essentially said that no suspect had been apprehended, but that the stay indoors ban was lifted and to please go about your lives...as if that was possible at that moment. 

Not ten minutes later, there was gunfire and something had happened.  My friend V picked me up for dinner and as we drove, picking up the other girls, we had it on the radio.  Did they have him?  Was it over?  At dinner, in a crowded restaurant, everyone's eyes were glued to the tv screens.  He was in a boat.  He was cornered.  

Captured.

I can't express the relief, pride, and happiness that  I felt in that moment.  I was so impressed that law enforcement was able to take him alive, with no more loss of life.

And then the restaurant broke into Sweet Caroline.