9-Year-Old Boston Marathon Victim's Special Message to Paris
Young Boston Marathon bombing survivor Jane Richard, 9, shared a simple posterboard message, adorned with colorful hearts and a hand-painted Eiffel Tower, with citizens of the world this week: “Arretez de faire du mal aux autres. La paix.”
The translation: "Stop hurting others. Peace.”
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Richard — who lost her leg as well as her 8-year-old brother during the 2013 Boston bombing — was moved to respond publicly, via Facebook, to Friday’s attacks in Paris, which killed 129 people and injured scores more.
The image, seen above, was posted on the page of the foundation named after her late brother, Martin Richard, with this caption: “To Paris. With love, from Jane. #NoMoreHurtingPeoplePeace”
Jane Richard, Boston bombing survivor, commemorating the second anniversary of the attacks. (Photo: Boston Globe/Getty Images)
It’s the same message her brother wrote on a poster he had made just days before he was killed. In the days after the bombing, a photo of him holding that poster, which read, “No more hurting people. Peace,” went viral, becoming a symbol of hope after the tragedy.
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Jane’s Facebook post now has more than 2,400 likes and more than 1,500 shares. The simple message continues to inspire.
“It really should be simple, shouldn’t it Jane? Your picture/tribute is very moving and beautiful. We need more, many, many more of you in the world,” wrote one of her many supporters.
The original photo that went viral, of Martin Richard and his plea for peace. (Photo: Facebook)
The family started the Martin Richard Foundation to honor the boy’s message of peace by investing in education, athletics, and community.
“You can choose to live in the past or look forward to the future,” the family wrote on the foundation’s website. “You can choose to be apathetic or you can be someone who embraces peace and kindness.”
But, of course, explaining the events that unfolded on Friday evening in the City of Light has many parents in anguish. In some parts of Paris, parents are helping their children draw their emotions. Among the images created by families in Paris’ 11th Arrondissement were broken hearts and gravestones — but also suns, full hearts, and the French flag
“They don’t understand what’s happening, but they feel the fear or the anger. It’s their neighborhood, and they’re very sensitive,” French mother Kaoru Watanabe told a reporter. “Instead of hanging on to their emotion, having developed a kind of trauma, it’s much better that they express it, in order to heal themselves.“
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