Pete Braley Speaks to His Daughter Who Saw the Bombs Go Off in Boston

A lazy afternoon turned tragic today as I was on the couch napping after watching the Sox game. My wife called to tell me that she was okay and my daughter was okay.

My wife Priscilla is a paramedic who works in greater Boston. She was not in the city when the bombs went off, but she knows people that were. My daughter Sarah is a manager for Olympia Sports and she had been called in to work at the Prudential Center because of the heavy turnout they get every year with the Boston Marathon.

Sarah saw the bombs go off.  Her manager asked if she had ever been to the marathon before and since Sarah never had, they went out on the sidewalk to enjoy the experience. Sarah told me, "It was my first time and I was excited. People were cheering and ringing cow bells. We were going to go to the finish line, but there were so many people we decided to stop and watch it from in front of the Pru. That's when I saw the first bomb go off and everything became very quiet. Then I turned to my left and saw the second bomb. And when we saw the smoke people just ran."

Sarah said that as she made it out of the city it was heart warming to see that people were stopping their cars for anyone who was dressed as a runner to see if they were okay and offering to give them a ride to anywhere they needed to go.

Sarah called in this morning.

Also, let me salute the first responders who ran TOWARDS the chaos when help was needed. When people run AWAY from danger in times like this, it's the first responders who are trained to run TO it. And I thank you.