Boston Strong

Risko, Sarah · April 19, 2013

Boston has been my family's home for 108 years when my great-great grandparents and great-grandmother immigrated from Scotland in 1906. I was 5 years old I diagnosed with leukemia. I did three and half years of treatments at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center. I attended a school for kids with learning disabilities in Newton where I learned to take the T independently. I attended Bridgewater State College and moved from Hingham to Boston in 2012. I've never lived anywhere else because I feel don't belong anywhere else but, Massachusetts. I was in Brookline when the bombs went off. I was at what use to be a friend's apartment, and when of her friend's was hosting a Marathon party. I was talking to someone near the TV and my friend's husband said: "guys come here, something happened at the Marathon!" Another friend was running so we were concerned. When the newscaster stated that there were people down there without legs, no one was talking. Everyone's face was forlorn; no one could believe what just happened. After a few minutes we got a hold of our friend and she okay, thank God. The days following made the city feel like something so surreal. A Boston Police officer or state trooper at the end of each open street. The day after was a beautiful sunny day but, the places I like to go after work like the library and Dunkin' Doughnuts were closed off to me. Thursday, April 18th 9:00pm, Cambridge; I was at my bible study with people I go to church with. We were praying that the people who committed this horrible crime is captured soon. 10:00pm, a friend was driving people home from bible study and we were dropping people off near MIT. "Let's take Mass Ave instead of Vessar Street" said one of my friends. April 19th: I stand at the bus stop waiting for the 39 bus from JP. There was an eerie feeling to the city that but, I couldn't quite place it. Then two women came by saying the whole T shut down. I couldn't get to work if the T was shut down so I went back to my apartment, turned on the news, and called my texted a coworker saying I couldn't make it in. When the Boston were speaking about what happened just hours before, I realized my church friends and I would have been in the line of fire when the police were pursing the brothers and the older one was run over by the younger one. While we were sitting in our house church in Cambridge all this was going on. I walked all over the city the next day when the terrorist was captured and the "shelter-in-place" order was lifted, that's when I got inspiration for my piece. When I went the memorial site in Copley I saw nothing for the survivors. My piece features the symbol of the Marathon which is a unicorn with the a prosthetic leg, rearing up and ready to race again. The blinking lights and support from the city glows in background. This simple piece of art is a little something I can offer to a city that has given me so much.