On the morning of the Boston Marathon, Rebekah Gregory, her son Noah, and boyfriend Peter Dimartino were waiting for Dimartino's mom to cross the finish line when the blasts happened.
"We were thrown back and I just remember looking around trying to gather what just happened to us. Somehow I knew it was a bomb," Gregory said.
Dimartino, too, was thrown to the ground, and the shrapnel from the pressure cooker bombs ripped open his leg.
Gregory was still down, badly hurt. Her scars are still obvious today, seven months later.
"I didn't think I had any legs at that point. I raised up my arm, I had two completely exposed bones coming out of it," she said.
But Gregory's first concern was not herself.
"I could hear him, out of every scream and all the chaos going on, I could hear Noah saying 'Mommy, mommy, mommy,'" Gregory said.
Just moments later, Dimartino's aunt sat the then 5-year-old Noah next to his mom. He, too, was hurt by shrapnel to his leg and the back of his head.
But Gregory was in the worst shape.
"One of the first responders said, 'This is really bad,'" she said.
Gregory was soon wheeled into the operating rooms for the first of many surgeries in Boston to repair her leg. Her son's injuries serious, but not as bad as hers. And she is grateful, because the bombs did the most damage close to the ground.
"I know and our family knows that he probably shouldn't have made it that day," Gregory said.
Today, she gets around on crutches covered in blue and yellow tape, the colors of the Boston Marathon.
Progress has been slow for all three of them.
"As far as how healed I am, I still have a long ways to go with that," Dimartino said.
So what's ahead for Gregory? While she faces more surgery, she and Noah still have to live with the emotional scares and moving on from one of the worst experiences one could ever face.
"It's been very painful every single day, and it has been ever since April 15th," Gregory said.
Gregory and Dimartino are now engaged and are planning an April 2014 wedding -- a family tested by the worst in human nature and coming out alive.
"I'm just so appreciative for another day," Gregory said.
And for those of you who donated to one fund Boston after the bombings, your money has gone to cover medical expenses. Gregory says her insurance lapsed three days before the bombing and medical treatment for her and Noah's costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most of it has been paid for by the One Fund Boston. Meanwhile, the three of them plan to travel back to Boston for next year's marathon.
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