Along bustling Boylston Street and under a sweltering sun, artist Pablo Eduardo was hard at work with his crew erecting towering bronze spires, the first installation of the long-awaited memorial markers honoring the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.
Eduardo’s labor of love honors Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell and Lingzi Lu, who were killed when a pair of bombs exploded on April 15, 2013. The markers also honor MIT police officer Sean Collier, who was killed by the terrorist Tsarnaev brothers after the bombings, and Boston police Sgt. Dennis “DJ” Simmonds, who died a year after a grenade was thrown at him as he and other officers closed in on the brothers in Watertown, as well as all those injured in the bombings.
Eduardo has poured his heart and soul into this project and he’s been working closely with the victim’s families on creating a memorial to honor the sacrifices of one of Boston’s darkest days.
On Wednesday, Eduardo was at the spot on Boylston Street where the second bomb exploded that horrible afternoon in front of the old Forum Restaurant, killing Martin, 8, and Lingzi. There, the Gloucester sculptor and his team put up four spiraling bronze spires, which will hold delicate glass and subtle lights. Two granite pillars representing Martin and Lingzi will be placed there with the inscription, “Let us climb, now, the road to hope.”
A short distance away, closer to the finish line in front of Marathon Sports, where the first bomb exploded, four more bronze spires will go up as well as a single granite stone representing Krystle with the inscription, “All we have lost is brightly lost.”
Eduardo said it’s hard for the families to go to the place where their loved ones were killed and he wanted those places to be marked in a beautiful and tasteful way. “It’s been a great honor to work with the families, to meet with them, interact with them,” Eduardo said.
The $2 million project has been in the works for four years, taking about a year to design and then another year-and-a-half to carefully create the structures and sculptures.
“It was a very organic process, long, but organic,” Eduardo said. “It was very emotionally charged. The meetings were hard sometimes, tears, all the time. Everybody felt that it was a great honor to be part of this — every person we picked to work on this.”
Eduardo’s hope is that people can come to the memorial and reflect. “That there’s enough beauty in it to slow down a little bit,” Eduardo said. “There’s the visual part and then there’s the quietness that the design brings. That’s the hope.”
When Eduardo first met with the victim’s families, he told them, “I hope I can design a place that is sacred.” Even amid Wednesday’s hustle and bustle in the heart of Boston, a woman was moved to tears at the sight of the bronze spires in the distance. It’s a beautiful tribute to a painful chapter in Boston’s history, but hopefully one that will bring some comfort and peace.