‘My determination outweighs my fear every day,’ Boston Marathon bombing survivor says with new book
Boston Marathon bombing survivor Rebekah Gregory is celebrating a new milestone this week: becoming an author. Gregory, 29, was watching the marathon in 2013 with her then-5-year-old son, Noah, when the blast went off and ultimately had to have her left leg amputated. Her book about her experience, Taking My Life Back, will be released Tuesday.In an appearance on the Today show Monday, Gregory said she feels blessed as she starts the new chapter in her life. “My determination outweighs my fear every day,” she said. “So just because I was at the Boston Marathon and I got blown up does not mean my life stops there. I was three feet from a bomb and I’m here today, so I am very blessed, regardless of anything else that happens.”
“Just because I was at the Boston Marathon & got blown up, does not mean that my life stops there.” @rebekahmgregory tells @savannahguthrie pic.twitter.com/lw7y0AU9di
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) April 3, 2017
She told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie she thinks there’s a misconception that because the bombing occurred four years ago, she and other survivors have “moved on” with their lives.
“What people don’t understand is the emotional impact of everything is so much greater than the physical,” she said. “So what we saw that day — people’s body parts were on the ground next to us, bones were lying on the sidewalk, blood, nails, bbs, ball bearings, and so that sticks with you.”
In a separate interview with Kathie Lee Gifford and Jenna Bush Hager, she said she detailed her struggles and put “everything in the book” with the hope that she may be able to help others by sharing her own experience.
Still, reliving her experience while writing the book was a challenge, she said.
“It was tough,” she said. “It’s been one of the toughest things I’ve ever done, but it was healing too. There was a lot of chapters and a lot of memories that I hadn’t thought about in a very long time. So just to put them down on paper, really, it felt good.”
Gregory, who said at age 10 that she wanted to write a book before she turned 30, celebrated her new title of “author” on Facebook over the weekend, writing: “that sounds so much better than bombing victim don’t you think?!”
Monday morning, she took a moment to reflect on the new phase of her life with the achievement of her “biggest dream” of writing a book:
“‘Taking My Life Back’ is not just my story on paper,” she wrote. “It is my testament that no matter what obstacles may come, my determination will never falter. It is also a reminder that the courage inside us all, is greater than any fear we could ever conjure.”
https://www.facebook.com/rebekahmgregorypage/posts/1309029149213031
