BOSTON (WHDH) - From the chaos and tragedy of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Rebekah Gregory has charted her own path to peace.
Gregory and her 5-year-old son Noah were on the sidelines supporting a family friend when the first bomb exploded three feet away from where they were standing.
“I was fully conscious through everything so I remember, you know, my own left leg on fire and not being able to move anything but my head and just looking down and thinking, ‘Oh my god, I’m gonna lose my life today, I’m gonna die,'” Gregory recalled. “Later I found out that my body acted as a human shield for (my son). I took everything in the back of the legs and the hands and the torso and that’s what saved him from further injury.”
Gregory lost her lower left leg as a result of the bombing.
Her son was out of the hospital in five days but his emotional injuries lasted much longer.
“All I knew was I had a 5-year-old boy that was scared to death to leave the house,” Gregory said. “He didn’t want to get back on his bike. He didn’t want to interact with the outside world because he was afraid that something else bad was going to happen to him.”
As Gregory made great strides in her physical therapy, she found help for Noah, who was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“We said, you know what, we want to bring awareness to not only PTSD but PTSD in children and trauma in children,” she said.
Gregory and her family of four started the non-profit organization Rebekah’s Angels that helps other kids like Noah get better by providing resources and funding for treatment.
She will be in Boston for the marathon, which marks the six-year anniversary of the bombing, to cheer on five runners raising money for her foundation.
Her message is to look for the light in every dark situation.
“Look at what everyone’s gone on to accomplish in the middle of all this craziness and tragedy. There has been so much good that has been done as a result of one act of hate that day,” she said. “I have a family that loves me, I have two beautiful children and I have so many things to be grateful for in my life, one leg or not.”
Gregory, who completed a marathon in 2015, says she needs to undergo more surgery on her leg but her goal is still to run the full Boston Marathon someday.
Meanwhile, her foundation is looking for more doctors and hospitals to partner with to help kids dealing with PTSD.
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