BOSTON (AP) — The boy who was killed in the Boston Marathon bombings was remembered by neighbors Tuesday as a vivacious 8-year-old who loved to run and climb.
Martin Richard was among the three people killed in the explosions Monday, according to U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, a friend of the family for 25 years. The boy’s mother, Denise, and 6-year-old sister, Jane, were badly injured. His brother and father were also watching the race but were not hurt.
They had gone to get ice cream, then returned to the area near the finish line. Neighbor Jack Cunningham said Martin’s father was a runner but had been injured and didn’t run the marathon.
"They were looking in the crowd as the runners were coming to see if they could identify some of their friends when the bomb hit," Lynch said. He described the family as very strong and said they were doing better than might be expected.
On Tuesday morning, candle burned on the stoop of the family’s single-family home in the city’s Dorchester section, and "peace" was written in chalk on the front walkway. A child’s bicycle helmet lay overturned on the front lawn.
"What a gift. To know him was to love him," said longtime friend Judy Tuttle, who remembered sitting at the dining room table having tea with Denise Richard while Martin did his homework. "He had that million-dollar smile and you never knew what was going to come out of him. Denise is the most spectacular mother that you’ve ever met and Bill is a pillar of the community. It doesn’t get any better than these people."
Neighbor Betty Delorey, 80, said Martin loved to climb the neighborhood trees and hop the fence outside his home.
"I can just remember his mother calling him, ’Martin!’ if he was doing something wrong," she said. "Just a vivacious little kid."
Delorey had a photo showing Martin dressed as the character Woody from the Toy Story films, wearing a cowboy hat, a sheriff’s badge, jeans and a big smile. His sister, Jane, was at his right dressed as Woody’s friend, Jesse. Their older brother, Henry, was to their left, dressed as Harry Potter.
"I’m sick to my stomach," she said. "It’s hard to say anything really."
The children’s father, Bill, is the director of a local community group, and an avid runner and bicyclist.
Denise Richard works as a librarian at the Neighborhood House Charter School, where Martin was a third-grader and Jane attends first grade.
Counselors were being made available Tuesday to staff and students, said Bodi Luse, a school spokeswoman.
"We are devastated," she said. "The whole community is devastated."
Cunningham remembered running in a community 5K race with the Richard family on a rainy day years ago. He said Martin would jump out of a stroller that his mother was pushing to hop in the mud puddles along the route.
"I just can’t get a handle on it," he said of the boy’s death. "In an instant, life changes.
-This story was written by Bridget Murphy of the Associated Press and published on legacy.com
April 15 in Boston, MA is usually a day of celebration. In fact, there are 4,860 MLB games in the regular season, only one of them starts with an AM time – April 15 at Fenway Park in Boston. Much of America’s rich history, particularly history of our nation’s founding, is in and near Boston. But the events of six days ago, when not only the City of Boston, the State of Massachusetts, but the entire United States of America was attacked by coward criminals who were radicalized by those who hate American and the things we stand for – life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and above all, religious freedom. The brothers responsible for the murder of three Americans, as well as the injuries of dozens of others, will face justice. One brother, the 26 year old radical, faced justice at the hands of the law enforcement professionals before facing standing before God to be judged for eternity. Currently, his younger brother, age 19, is in a heavily guarded hospital being treated for multiple wounds. He will face the judgment of American law.
This past week and a half, April 14 – 20, is quite possibly the most tragic days in American history. For within these 10 days contains events that changed our country or our way of life.
Abraham Lincoln Assassination - April 14, 1885 – President Lincoln’s assassination took place on Good Friday, 1965, just five days after the south surrendered to the north, bringing an end to the AMericna Civil War. He sat in the balcony, stage right, of Ford’s Theatre, on that Friday evening to watch the play. Lincoln’s bodyguard had left his post to visit the tavern across the street with Lincoln’s coach driver. That allowed John Wilkes Booth to enter the Presidential Box and assassinate the POTUS.
Titanic – April 15, 1912 – The “Ship of dreams” left the port of Liverpool, UK heading for New York City. Just a few days into trip, She struck an iceberg at 11:40pm on April 14, 1912. By the time the sun rose hundreds had drowned or froze to death in the 28 degree water of the North Atlantic Ocean. There were only 20 live boats which could carry a maximum of 1178 people, therefore of the total 3,327 people on board, 1514 people lost their lives on April 15,1912
Oklahoma City Bombing – April 19, 1995 – A Wednesday morning seemed like any other normal morning. Employees were arriving to work, parents were leaving their children at the day care in Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK when at 9:02AM, Timothy McVegh, Terry Nichols, and Michael and Lori Fortier committed the most horrific act of terrorism on US soil when the blew up the building, leading to 168 deaths while injuring 680 more. “"Think about the people as if they were storm troopers in Star Wars. They may be individually innocent, but they are guilty because they work for the Evil Empire."
—McVeigh reflecting on the deaths of victims in the bombing”
Columbine High School Shooting – April 20, 1999 – The first shots rang out at 11:19am and continued for 49 minutes until 12:08pm. Two friends decided to take their rage and hate out on others by killing 13 people before killing themselves. 21 other were also injured. This had to be the 49 longest minutes in American history. This single day changed and reshaped law enforment training and procedures. You see, what took so long was that the local police, instead of storming the building in groups of four in a diamond formation, waited for SWAT and negotiators to arrive on scene. The rest is history. That single day has changed the way law enforcement trains. They no longer wait outside, but storm the building to save as many innocent people as possible, putting themselves in the line of flying bullets so that others may live.
Virginia Tech – April 16, 2007 – Beginning at 7:15am and lasting until 9:51am, over two and a half hours, people’s children were losing their lives at the hand of psychotic killer. At the end of the day, 33 people were killed. Although law enforcement arrived within 3 mminutes of the shootings first being reports, it became the biggest mass casualty shooting in school history because the shooter barricaded the door and locked them with chains.
Boston Marathon Bombing – April 15, 2013 – Just this past week, six days ago, cowerds who hate our country and way of live tried to kill as many Americans as possible with a pressure cooker, ball bearings, and nails. Three people were killed, over 160 were injured, and America was gripped to the TV as we all watched Watertown, MA was locked down with hundreds of local, state, and federal law enformecment officals looked for the second terrorist responsible for the acts at the finish line of America’s longest tenured marathon.
While the Bible does not directly address terrorism, there are many passages from which we can find comfort and peace. Think of where you were on Monday afternoon when you heard of the bombing. I was sitting in class at Grace Theological Seminary at Winona Lake, IN with Dr. Leith Anderson, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals. Periodically throughout the rest of the day, Leith would ask for updates. The Bible says in Psalm 34:18, “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart…” Think of the parents and younger sister of Martin Richard, of 8 year old boy who died in the blast; the parents of Crystal Campbell, the 29 year old who attended the marathon to watch her friend’s boyfriend finish the race; or Lü Lingzi, a Chinese graduate student studying on American, planning the rest of his life. They are all broken hearted. Our nation is broken hearted, not because the radical terrorists got us again, but because our friends and fellow countryman were killed for not reason. For no reason people lost their limbs and their ability to walk, hear, or see. For no people are now forced to have nightmare after nightmare of the event they witnessed.
My mom called me this week and told that a family friends were near the finish line when the blasts occurred. The Mervar’s had gone to Boston to run the race, their son, Perry, who we had his wife’s wedding shower in our home back in the late 90’s, finished the are 12 minutes fast than he ever had!! 12 mniutes!! He went to his room, showered, and was at a restaurant with his wife, Jenny, at the finish line and saw and felt the blast. They will NEVER forget it. Just think, what if he hadn’t run 12 minutes faster, but rather? Our God is near those who are broken hearted.
People do not come to church to hear that they are sinners, or to be told that they need to stop drinking, or gambling, or smoking, or stop being sexually immoral, or stop cheating, or lying, or that they need to give more money to the church. No! People come to church because they want to hear that there is hope of some sort. The great things is – there is Hope! I am absolutely convinced the life-changing and life-saving power of the Good News of Jesus. The best news is that there is hope for those hurting, those with a broken heart for whatever reason, there is hope for the depression to end, there is hope for the healing of those hurt by the bombing, there is hope for the future of American, there is hope for each of us in this room. That hope is Jesus Christ. He loved us so much that He willfully died on the cross for us so that, even though we will die someday, we may live forever in a place where there is no pain, no suffering, no tears, and no death. In heaven there will not be bombs and shootings, there will not boats sinking, and planes crashing. There will not be house foreclosures and failing report cards. There will not be the pains and struggles of life, but rather there will be unspeakable joy and comfort, a peace which we cannot yet comprehend, and we will be a forgiven people, loved by the Creator and Savior of the universe.
Something every interesting happened on the first Sunday following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Church all across the nation saw a huge jump in attendance. Within a few short weeks the influx of church attendance had dropped back to where it was pre-September 11, except for one place – New York City. New Yorkers flocked to the churches of the city and since then it has become the fast growing church population in America!!! Genesis 50:20 says, “But as you for, you meant evil against me, God meant it for good.” Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” You see, there is great and tremendous hope! Hope because of the live, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In addition to the victims and others affected last week, let us pray for the churches in Boston who have a very unique opportunity to serve, minister, and witness to other for the hope and peace of Jesus Christ. John 16:33, “33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
