Lynn family focuses on positive after traumatic day in Boston

LYNN – When Laurie Spencer shows her children pictures from their day at the Boston Marathon they will only include happy stories, she said. There will be no talk of bomb blasts.”The picture of them sitting on the mother duck at Make Way for Ducklings, that’s what I’ll make sure they remember,” she said of the popular sculpture in the Boston Public Garden.Laurie and Stephen Spencer, who is the city’s comptroller, headed into Boston Monday with their daughters Amelia, 5, and Madison, 9, along with a contingent of friends to cheer on a couple of friends who were running in the world-famous event.”The kids asked to go into the candy store, so we went and got out and walked about 100 yards to the left,” Laurie Spencer said. “I was looking at the kids in the direction of the finish line when the first blast went off.”Spencer said she didn’t even flinch, she saw the smoke from the blast rolling towards them, grabbed Madison’s hand while her husband grabbed Amelia and they ran into a nearby AT&T Store.Someone said it was only a manhole cover that had blown, but Spencer said she knew it was worse than that. The pair raced to the back of the store to keep the girls away from the large glass windows just as the second blast sounded.”We were not in there five minutes and we had to take the kids back out again because people were coming in all covered in blood,” she said. “People were calling out asking if anyone had a scarf or a belt.”Spencer was quick to note that they did not see anyone with significant injuries but she and her husband did their best to shield the children from the mayhem.”I’ll never forget the faces my children had when the bomb went off,” she said. “It was the same as the people when we went back outside, ghostly white, like they didn’t know what to do.”Although people were running away and others running to help, Spencer said it was not chaotic.They were all moving in the right direction, like everyone knew exactly what to do, she said.The Spencers exited the store, took a quick left and ended up on Newbury Street where they met up with their friends, all of whom were safe and unharmed, Laurie Spencer said.The girls relaxed once they got home and Stephen Spencer said they even played. Laurie Spencer said she believes her 5-year-old is young enough that she doesn’t fully grasp what happened. Madison was caught on camera and Laurie Spencer said she’s been all over the television but she has not been allowed to watch it.”Thank God my children slept very well last night,” she said. “If (Madison) has any questions I’ll answer them but I’m going to wait for her to ask.”Laurie Spencer admitted that she didn’t even begin to process the event herself until Tuesday morning when she watched some of the news coverage for the first time. Then she took the girls to the park and on to a friend’s house where they played all day far away from any news coverage, she said.While Spencer said she will treasure the photos of the girls taken at the Boston Common and at the race prior to the explosion there were two pictures she felt compelled to pass on.”I sent two pictures to the FBI,” she said. “I showed them to people and they said it was right where the bomb went off just minutes before it went off.”Spencer said she doesn’t know if there is anything in the photos that will help authorities but she needed to try.”I’m not a corny person by any means,” she added. “But I definitely think someone was watching over all of us. We were standing right there, just 10 or 15 minutes before the bomb went off ? we were very, very lucky.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].