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Richard Family Shares Story Of Loss And Love

BOSTON (CBS) – The attack on Boylston Street at last year's Boston Marathon was a defining moment for many families but the Richard family from Dorchester may have been impacted the most.

David Abel, a Boston Globe reporter, is the only journalist to spend significant time with Bill and Denise Richard, the parents of the youngest victim to die, 8-year-old Martin.

RICHARD FAMILY
(Credit: Richard Family Website)

Abel said he thinks the Richards wanted to avoid the glare of the media for a very long time.

"I think what's really challenging for both of them is that this, unlike a lot of other awful tragedies that people go through, theirs happened in such a public way."

In a lengthy, two-part story for the Globe, Abel tells of Martin's younger sister Jane learning to walk on a prosthetic leg and chronicles the juggling act of trying to keep the oldest son Henry's life as normal as possible.

"What was harder and less easy to anticipate for them, and for anyone else, was the challenge of coming home and readjusting to their life without their son," Abel said.

Now as Abel prepares to run this year's Boston Marathon, the Richard family is thinking about how they'll handle the first anniversary.

"They're going to have to experience the publicity around their son's death every year in a major way," he said

Part two of Abel's story on the Richard family will be published in Monday's Globe. It recounts the second half of their journey – the first steps in acceptance and healing.

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