{"id":6847,"date":"2018-04-06T16:26:15","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T20:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=6847"},"modified":"2018-04-06T16:26:51","modified_gmt":"2018-04-06T20:26:51","slug":"jessica-rescue-marathon-bombing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/04\/06\/jessica-rescue-marathon-bombing\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica Kensky Lost Her Legs To The Marathon Bombing, In Her New Children’s Book She Writes Of The Struggles And Setbacks Of Healing"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of the new children\u2019s picture book \u201cRescue & Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship,\u201d<\/a> a girl lays in a hospital bed worried after being told by her doctor: \u201cYou\u2019re an amputee now Jessica. \u2026 You have to wear a prosthetic leg or use a wheelchair for the rest of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story\u2014authored by Cambridge couple Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes and illustrated by Scott Magoon of Reading, Massachusetts\u2014is inspired by what happened to them at the 2013 Boston Marathon, five years ago on April 15.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The cover of \u201cRescue and Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship\u201d text copyright \u00a9 2018 by Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes, illustrations copyright \u00a9 2018 by Scott Magoon. (Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, Mass.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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An athletic couple, Kensky, a nurse, and Downes, now a psychologist, had both run the marathon in 2005\u2014before they met. They married in 2012. The day of the 2013 marathon, they worked out at their local gym, then strolled through Boston’s Public Garden together before heading to the<\/p>\n

\"Rescue,<\/a>
Rescue, Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes. (Courtesy Candlewick Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

marathon finish line to watch the midafternoon finishers run by. The bomb blast severed his left leg and set her clothes on fire and damaged her left leg so badly that doctors amputated it. Persistent problems from wounds and shrapnel to her right leg resulted in that leg also being removed in January 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cRescue & Jessica\u201d stays close to Kensky\u2019s actual story, but reframes it as the life of a teenage girl. It skips over what hurt the girl\u2019s legs to focus frankly and lovingly on the struggles and setbacks of her healing. \u201cThe illustrations demonstrate her learning wheelchair transfers, learning to walk and balance in parallel bars, opening a door and carrying items in a wheelchair,\u201d Kensky writes in materials provided by the book\u2019s publisher, Candlewick Press in Somerville.<\/p>\n

The co-star of the book is the service dog, Rescue, who helps the girl along the way. He\u2019s named after Kensky\u2019s own black Labrador service dog, trained by National Education for Assistance Dog Services (NEADS}\/World Class Service Dogs in Princeton, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps we, as a society, assume the truth is too scary for children because in fact it is too scary for most adults,\u201d the couple writes. They hope the book invites \u201creaders to feel the pain, sorrow and anxiety that Jessica and Rescue feel, but also to witness how they are able to sit with uncertainty and yet achieve so much as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
From \u201cRescue and Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship\u201d authored by Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes and illustrated by Scott Magoon. (Courtesy Candlewick Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The book describes the girl learning how to walk again with a prosthetic leg, \u201cfrustrated and sad about the things she still couldn\u2019t do. She felt like the changes were too big, too much.\u201d Rescue helps her open doors, barks if she needs someone, lets her lean on him when she\u2019s fallen and needs help getting back up. Then, as in Kensky\u2019s actual story, the girl\u2019s doctor tells her that her right leg will need to be removed too. \u201cThis didn\u2019t get any easier for Jessica to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book says: \u201cRescue and Jessica had to start all over again. Slowly but surely, they learned how to do all the things they need to do. Together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
From \u201cRescue and Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship\u201d authored by Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes and illustrated by Scott Magoon. (Courtesy Candlewick Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Illustrator Scott Magoon\u2019s gentle digital illustrations depict them visiting Boston\u2019s Greenway, Boston Common, and the bridge over the lagoon in the Public Garden (with a shout-out to the classic picture book \u201cMake Way for Ducklings\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was applying for a service dog through NEADS [National Education for Assistance Dog Services], I was focused on all the ways he was going to help me physically,\u201d Kensky writes. \u201cI did not think of the myriad ways he would help me and my family emotionally heal from trauma. … Also, our relationship is a true partnership. He takes care of me, and I need to take care of him. Having him forced me to get off the couch and out of bed. I had to feed him, walk him, and make sure he had daily free\/playtime. His exercise became mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/a>
Scott Magoon. (Courtesy Candlewick Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Magoon was running the 2013 marathon as an unofficial\u2014a \u201cbandit\u201d\u2014runner and was near the finish line \u201cwhen the first bomb exploded in front of me. Twelve seconds later, the second bomb detonated behind me. I felt the concussion wave on my back, my ears rang and then, all around\u2014pandemonium.\u201d<\/p>\n

He escaped without injury. He writes on his website<\/a>: \u201cPanic in my heart\u2014I knew my wife and two boys (ages 8 and 6 at the time) had made their way to Boylston Street’s finish line and were somewhere nearby waiting to watch me pass. Where were they? Were they okay? As I abandoned the course, my iPhone rang\u2014it was Christy to say they all were okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Magoon, the book has been a way to give some purpose and meaning to his experience. And this year, to raise money for the National Education for Assistance Dog Services, he\u2019s planning to run the marathon again for the first time since that day.<\/p>\n

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The authors are scheduled to make appearances at Barnes & Noble, 98 Middlesex Turnpike, Burlington, at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 7; at An Unlikely Story, 111 South St., Plainville, at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 8; and at Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel (tickets required), 138 St. James Ave., Boston, at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 14.<\/p>\n

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Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of the new children\u2019s picture book \u201cRescue & Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship,\u201d a girl lays in a hospital bed worried after being told by her doctor: \u201cYou\u2019re an amputee now Jessica. \u2026 You have to wear a prosthetic leg or use a wheelchair for the rest of your life.\u201d The story\u2014authored by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,107,192],"tags":[92],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6847"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6862,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6847\/revisions\/6862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}