Boston Marathon bombing victim tells tale of perseverance, optimism

Boston Marathon bombing survivor Jeff Bauman kicked off the Southeast Missouri State University Speakers Series by sharing his story of injury and perseverance.

Bauman lost both legs in the bombing and since has written a bestselling book called, "Stronger." But before the bombing, he was a normal 27-year-old New Englander who worked at Costco, rooted for Boston's sports teams and went drinking with friends for fun.

"I loved my job," he said. "I showed up almost every day."

And when his girlfriend, Erin Hurley, entered the Boston Marathon, he and two of Hurley's friends, Michele Mahoney and Remy Lawler, decided to wait at the finish line to watch her come in.

"This kid bumped into me," Bauman recalled. "He kinda looked out of place."

The stranger carried a backpack and awkwardly pushed his way through the crowd. Bauman more or less shrugged it off until he noticed a minute later the man was gone, but his pack was still there.

"I saw a flash of white," he said. "I heard three pops, and I was on the ground."

He saw Mahoney on the ground, bleeding.

"I could see the bone in her leg," he recalled.

Bauman then realized his own legs also were mangled.

"Split like bean pods," he said. "Then I heard a second explosion."

In a moment of confusion, he glanced at the sky to check for fighter jets or anything that might explain the chaos.

"We didn't know what was going on," he said.

Bauman's the one in the wheelchair in the iconic photo from the scene of him being frantically wheeled away by medics and a man in a white cowboy hat. Bauman later would form a lasting friendship with the man, Carlos Arredondo.

"They saved my life," he said. "But everyone saw that picture and thought, 'Jeff's dead, Jeff's dead.'"

He was alive, but in poor shape at an area hospital. Even before his breathing tube was removed, his sense of humor had returned. His first remark, written on a pad of paper, read "Lieutenant Dan." But his scribbled conversations turned serious when he realized the man he had seen was the bomber. Bauman then worked closely with FBI agents to establish a composite sketch and profile of the suspect.

The entire time, Bauman said, he still was trying to recover from life-altering wounds. The pain was constant.

Eventually, he began getting around with a wheelchair and was invited to wave the flag at a Boston Bruins ice hockey game. He and Arredondo met Boston Red Sox pitching star Pedro Martinez and threw out the first pitch at Fenway Park.

But Bauman wasn't thrilled about being wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life. The next step was prosthesis.

As painful as the process had been to that point, he said he worried about the transition and the countless hours of physical therapy it would entail. Soldiers who had lost limbs overseas would walk around and offer encouragement to newer patients, he said, although their encouragement was somewhat abrasive. They'd walk over on prosthetic legs, he said, and grab him by the collar.

"They'd say, 'Hey! You're gonna walk like us!' but I thought 'Well, yeah, but you're Marines,'" he said, doubting seriously he had anything like the veterans' grit.

"I stood up in June of 2013," he said proudly. He was whole again, with $100,000-apiece, Bluetooth-enabled, German-engineered prosthetics, but the bombing had left him with emotional scars as well.

When Hurley wanted to run a half-marathon in Portland, Maine, he was incredulous.

"I was like, 'You see what happened at the last finish line?'" he joked, but he was able to make it, in the end.

He and Hurley got a new house, a new dog, and she became pregnant during the winter of 2013. He wrote his best-selling book, the rights for which have been bought by Lions Gate Entertainment for adaptation into a Hollywood film.

"I was like, 'Wow that's amazing,'" he said. "Jake Gyllenhaal is signed on to play me."

But the one-year anniversary of the bombing loomed as it approached.

"I didn't want to go back there," he said, but changed his mind when Boston Mayor Marty Walsh offered his personal security detail to Bauman for the day.

"I was like, 'Hell, yeah, I'll be there,'" he said.

In April 2014, he was there, along with Arredondo and a sea of "Boston Strong" supporters.

He went back to work at Costco -- which now sold his book -- in the summer of 2014, his daughter Nora Gail was born that July, and he and Hurley were married soon after.

He said the most important things to keep in mind, regardless of one's personal struggles, are optimism and perseverance.

"Sometimes it's tough, but you gotta push to accomplish your goals," he said. "Stick with them and never give up."

tgraef@semissourian.com

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