Marathon Bombing Survivor ‘Boston Wicked Strong’

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One of my favorite workout T-shirts says: BOSTON WICKED STRONG. I bought it in Copley Square on Boylston Street, the year after two pressure-cooker bombs went off in 2013 near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, just up the street from the square. The slogan (“wicked” is Bostonese for very) became the city’s rallying cry after that horrific event, which killed three people and injured more than 260 others. I remember watching on television, enveloped in a great sadness. I know and love this part of Boston intimately after a few dozen visits over the years. We return nearly every summer to escape the Texas heat and revisit our favorite haunts. Boston is our favorite city to visit.

Rebekah Gregory was at the Boston Marathon that day with her then-5-year-old son. She was neither a runner nor a Bostonian. She says she was eating chocolate-covered pretzels at the time. She had flown up from Houston to watch a friend run the marathon. Gregory was 3 feet away from one of the bombs when it went off. Providentially, her body shielded her son from the blast because he was sitting on her feet, bored with all this marathon business. He was injured, but Gregory took the blast full force.

Two brothers committed this act of terrorism, filling pressure cookers with nails, ball bearings and other metal pieces. The older brother was run over and killed by his younger brother in the midst of a gunfight with police. The younger was apprehended, tried, convicted and sentenced to death.
Gregory was the final person to speak at Dzhokar Tsarnaev’s victim impact hearing. Here is what she said: “We are Boston strong, we are America strong, and choosing to mess with us was a terrible idea. So how’s that for your VICTIM impact statement?”

Gregory, now 29, was the keynote speaker at Longview Regional’s Stars Over Longview luncheon this week, honoring 12 women in the community who have made a difference. One of those honored is a colleague of mine at Thrive360, the nonprofit where I spend my daytime hours. After all the women were honored, Gregory came on stage. She is tall, blonde, willowy and funny, saying humor has helped her get through.

“I am not a victim,” she said. “I am a survivor.”

Gregory, despite more than 60 surgeries, eventually decided to have her left leg amputated below the knee. She has had surgery on her right leg as well.

“I told the doctor to chop it off,” she said, because the surgeries were not working. It was time to get on with her life. She used a marker to write, “It’s not you. It’s me,” on the piece of her leg to be amputated — the hackneyed breakup line. Then she named her prosthetic leg “Felicia” and sent out birth announcements. Did I mention she has a sense of humor?

Gregory wears Felicia when in public but uses a wheelchair at home, because it is easier to get around. Incredibly, in 2015, she ran the last three miles of the Boston Marathon, crossing the finish line just yards away from where the bomb exploded two years earlier.

For someone who won’t turn 30 until April, Gregory has seen more than her share of difficulties. Beside the many surgeries — and more to come — she went through a divorce after the bombing, remarried and had a child prematurely. “The doctors wanted me to terminate the pregnancy,” she said, but she refused. Her daughter is now a healthy eight-month-old, but it was quite a battle.

Now Gregory makes a living as a motivational speaker and has a book coming out in April: “Taking My Life Back: My Story of Faith, Determination, and Surviving the Boston Marathon Bombing.” That is what brought her to Longview and a standing ovation.

Rebekah Gregory is Boston Wicked Strong.

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