Taking My Life Back

Author: Rebekah Gregory
Genre: Memoir

On April 15, 2013, Rebekah Gregory and her five-year-old son waited at the finish line of the Boston Marathon to support a friend who was running. When the blast of a homemade bomb packed with nails and screws went off three feet away, Rebekah's legs took the brunt of the explosion, protecting her son from certain death. Seventeen surgeries and sixty-five procedures later, she finally made the decision to have her left leg 

amputated.
This stirring memoir tells the story of her remarkable recovery--including her triumphant return to Boston two years later to run part of the race and her participation in the trial of one of the terrorists--and explores the peace we experience when we learn to trust God with every part of our lives: the good, the bad, and even the terrifying.

Reviewer: Laura J. Davis

I wasn't sure if I could handle reading about the horrors Rebekah Gregory endured when she was a victim of the Boston Marathon Bombers. But one of the first things she mentioned was that she refused to be thought of as a victim, but rather as a survivor, so I knew this was going to be an interesting read.

How does one so young acquire such a positive attitude? Especially when her life before the bombing was not without its problems? I think a lot of the credit for her level-headed thinking goes towards her mother and the faith she displayed in God. Rebekah gives a thorough backstory to what her life was like growing up and it wasn't pretty. Her abusive father, who was a pastor, made it difficult for her to embrace God at all, but when she looked at her mother she could see what living for Christ and by His Words was all about. If not for her mother's faith and Rebekah's own renewed faith in Christ, I doubt she would have handled this trauma very well.

The book goes into her life before the bombing and after, so the reader will get a well-rounded view of the kind of person she was and the struggles she dealt with, especially in regards to her anxiety the day of the bombing. Her young son was leaning against her legs (one of which had to be amputated) when the bomb went off. She recounts that if not for her legs taking the full brunt of the blast, he would be dead. This mother's heart, felt her fear and anguish as doctors worked to save her life, all while wondering if he was still alive.

There were some parts of the book that badly need an editor to make the book more cohesive. It tends to jump all over the place, (from the past to present) and so requires more structure in that regard, but overall the book was a shining example of how good can come from evil.

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