COLE HARBOUR – The family of a Halifax-area woman competing in the Boston Marathon say they are beyond relieved that the marathon runner is safe and sound in light of explosions near the race’s finish line.
Denise Robson, who lives in Cole Harbour, had just finished the marathon and sent her daughter Alyssa, 16, a Facebook message about her race time when the explosions went off.
“It makes your heart drop, thinking your mom could be right in the middle of it,” Alyssa said.
The teen, who had been watching the marathon all day to check on her mom’s status, found herself glued to the TV and trying desperately to reach her mother.
“God I hope my mom’s ok,” she recalls herself thinking.
“I couldn’t move. I was just waiting to hear.”
Denise’s mother Valerie Gannon tears up as she remembers the tense moments until she knew the runner was alright.
“Just how she was. Not knowing. I knew she had finished before that,” Gannon says as tears filled her eyes.
Denise reached her family roughly half an hour after the explosions.
“Mom just said, ‘I’m safe. I’m ok. I know you guys have been worried about me’,” said Alyssa, who notes that her mother is in lockdown at her Boston hotel.
However, she is beyond relieved that her mother was not hurt.
“There was nothing like that feeling: your mom is safe. Nothing is wrong with her,” Alyssa shares.
“Relieved. Really relieved,” Valerie adds.
The pair is also counting their blessings that they themselves did not go down to Boston this year for the marathon like they have in years past. Last year, the family sat in the bleacher close to where the explosion went off.
“It scares me because, if we were there this year, we would have probably been in the exact same place,” Alyssa said. “The explosion was right in front of there. We would have seen it.”
Denise had been scheduled to return to Halifax Tuesday. Alyssa says she cannot wait to see her mother.
“I want to see her after this. I’m just so happy to hear she’s ok. That’s basically it.”
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