Afterwards/BOSTON STRONG

Afterwards things were somber.
Due to our proximity to the finish line, we were inundated with sirens and helicopters.
Boylston, normally a busy street, was closed as it was a crime scene.
The military decamped on Boston Commons, ironically the place where we all caught our respective school buses to the start of the marathon.
Michael and I were having a coffee in the mall that housed the Lord and Taylor store whose CCTV cameras caught the two bombers on film.  A news crew was also meeting there.  One of them departed for maybe fifteen minutes and then came back with a large item in a bag, and, pulling it out, it was a pressure cooker pot.
While we were sitting there, the hotel attached to the mall pulled up the giant Adidas Boston Marathon poster.  It felt too soon.
We tried to do everyday things on our last day in Boston but, like mostly everyone, we were glued to the news as, at that point, the authorities still hadn't said who was responsible for the death and carnage at the finish line.
We weren't the only ones trying to enact a modicum of normalcy. The people of Boston, the runners of Boston didn't stay holed up in their houses and their hotels.  They came out wearing their jackets and their shirts and no one was smiling and their was a pensive age that permeated everything, but they came out.
After the bombings runners fled, leaving behind their bag check bags that held their hotel keys, a warm, dry change of clothes, and their personal belongings.  This became part of the crime scene.
On Tuesday I read that the runners were allowed to come to Boylston to pick up their bag check bags.  I cried when I read that one of the volunteers that was handing over the bags and medals was also giving a hug to each runner that came.
After the bombings flights were cancelled, leaving runners cold, hungry, fatigued and stranded.  A website was created for Bostoners to put up stranded runners.
I loved Boston in 2009 for its fans and its enthusasiam.
I loved Boston in 2012 when a media blitz went out to try and help the marathoners that were suffering in the heat, and people turned out in droves.
I loved Boston in 2013 when I grabbed a blue Freezie from a little kid because I'd never had a Freezie during a marathon before.
And after everything came to light on Patriot's Day 2013, Boston stepped up to the plate more than I thought any city possibly could.
Boston strong is putting it lightly.