EDMONTON – When the bombs went off at the Boston Marathon Monday afternoon, panic quickly filled the streets. Among the Canadians caught in the chaos were Gloria and Connie Boucher from Alberta.
“I mean all the sirens and police, just seconds after all that happened, they just kicked in and started heading down to the finish line,” says Gloria of High River, who was running in the marathon. Her sister Connie, from Calgary, was there supporting her.
The two were supposed to meet back at their hotel. But when Gloria arrived back at the Marriott following her race, her sister was nowhere to be found.
“I started to panic and I didn’t know what to do, it was awful,” Gloria recalls. “I must’ve waited here 30 to 40 minutes for her outside the hotel room.”
Connie, meanwhile, was still on the smoke-filled street, where she had been waiting for Gloria to cross the finish line when the explosions happened. Instead of fleeing after the bombings, Connie was determined to stay and find her younger sister.
“I thought, I’m not leaving here without my sister. So I ran back up towards my finish line…they had already blocked it all off, they forced us all back,” she explains. “I came back to the finish line and I waited and waited and waited, until they pretty much forced us out of that area.
“And I thought ‘well, I guess the only next thing to do is to go back to the hotel and see if she made it there…I just thought, I just got to make it back to the hotel room and find Gloria. And if I find her, everything’s ok. That was kind of my mission.”
Gloria, back at the hotel, admits she was thinking the worst. Finally, her sister showed up.
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“Oh my god, I was so thankful,” Gloria says.
“She broke down,” Connie adds. “I was the big sister, I had to be brave. But it was a relief…it was good to see her and know that she was safe.”
The news that both were safe was also a huge relief to their other sister, Elaine Boucher, back in Two Hills, Alberta. She was extremely distraught as she desperately tried to get a hold of the two in Boston.
“I’m sure I shook for an hour. My entire body was shaking…just waiting for hear from them.”
She says that she felt a bit better after that happened, but will be very happy when her sisters get home. The two were planning on staying an extra couple days in Boston to do some sightseeing.
“But I don’t think that’s going to happen now,” says Connie.
The hotel she and Gloria are staying was still under lockdown Monday evening. Gloria has also been told everything within a 15-block radius is considered a crime scene.
“There’s the FBI, police, the SWAT team – are everywhere around here.”
Canadians in Boston who need emergency assistance can call the Consulate General at 617-247-5100. Friends and family looking for information on Canadian citizens believed to be in the area should call 1-800-387-3124 or email sos@international.gc.ca.
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