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BOSTON — One of the very first stories sent to Anonymousthankyous.com was from a Utah woman named Dawn. She was one of the many runners taking part in the 2013 Boston Marathon when the bomb went off. This is what she said:
"A heartfelt thank you to the people of Boston, especially to the eight strangers who came to my aid when I suffered intense hypothermia and shock when my run was stopped at the time of the bombing, a 1/4 mile from the finish line.
"I was carried into a warm building, given hot soup, blankets and medical attention. A fellow runner, who happened to be a doctor from Connecticut, took wonderful care of me. I was shown great kindness from a Boston policeman who took me into his car to warm up and ensured that I got back to my hotel safely. I’m so thankful for the goodness of total strangers, I will love Boston forever."
Shortly after Dawn sent us her story, her husband Steve added more to the story. This is what he wrote:
"I don’t remember if we told you all of the events that took place but there’s even more than what Dawn wrote here. The building that Dawn was taken into was a hotel. When the hotel manager saw that she was trying to warm up in the lobby and saw her body shaking, he told us to wait just a minute and he would see if he could open up a room for us to go into.
"He came back in just a few minutes and directed us to a room where she was able to lay down in a bed and get warm, drink soup and Gatorade, eat a banana and rest for the next two hours. The cook from the hotel restaurant then came down and said that he didn’t have any more soup but asked if there was anything else that he could get for us.
"Meanwhile, the EMTs arrived to take Dawn in an ambulance. She said, 'no don’t take me to the hospital, that’s too expensive and there are others that need help more than I do.' At that point another runner that was in the room with us, that had helped carry Dawn into the hotel, pulled out his wallet and gave his business card to the police officer present.
"The fellow runner said, “if she needs to go to the hospital, I will pay for any charges that she incurs.
"There were so many things that happened so quickly that it’s hard to count all the blessings that we received."
*Anonymous Thank Yous:*Have you ever wanted to say thank you for something a stranger did? Tell us your story at anonymousthankyous.com or follow along at Facebook and Twitter.
