By: Dawn Thompson
What a day! I set out this morning for a task with the American Red Cross Disaster Recovery Team for Boston. 10 minutes before I arrived, I got a call asking me if I was “flexible.” I said sure and asked for the new assignment. They still wanted me to come to the Cambridge office, but they had a special task for me.
A request for service was put in to canteen for the National Guard. Since Lynn, the director of Service to Armed Forces, and I were part of both teams (DAT & SAF), we were asked to do it. Now, at first I thought, “Easy one! Outdoors on a beautiful day.” Then, we realized that most of the guards were strategically placed in not-so-easy-to-reach places…with a car, that is ![:)]()
So, we loaded up our backpacks and hoofed it until every service man, woman and MP was hydrated!
So, we loaded up our backpacks and hoofed it until every service man, woman and MP was hydrated!
When we were in one of the T stops, I saw two women with Boston Marathon 2013 jackets on going outbound. One of them noticed my American Red Cross hat and took a double take before sheepishly looking away. I couldn’t let her leave Boston with that uncertainty on her face. When we got to the bottom of the stairs I asked her if she ran the race. She said yes.
I asked, “How much did you run?”
She said, “I made it all the way up to….about 250 yds in front of the finish line.” I congratulated her and told her we were proud!
She looked like she was going to cry and said, “I didn’t get to finish the race……”
I put up my hand to high five her and said, “Are you kidding me, you DID finish that race. You are AWESOME!” She smiled. At that point I asked her if she was going to come back and run in next year.
Her words were, “I am even MORE determined to run it than I was THIS year!” Well, there you have it. You can be all the way from Tennessee and still have the SPIRIT of BOSTON ♥
