Charlestown Vigil: 'We're Going to Get Through This'

The people of Charlestown honored their city and remembered the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing on Wednesday in Eden Park with candles, prayer and music, including a version of “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes.

“We’re all here and we’re going to get through this,” Townie Association member and Charlestown resident Sean Boyle told the crowd of several hundred. “They messed with the wrong city. It’s Boston. You know what I mean—we’re tough. We’re all proud to be American; we all live here in the birthplace of freedom, right where it all started.”

The event was organized quickly by the Townie Association, the Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition and Charlestown Against Drugs and included prayers by Father Dan Mahoney of St. Francis de Sales Church in Charlestown and Pastor Frank Fodera of Christian Assembly in Somerville.

Charlestown resident Shannon Lundin, who works as a community resource coordinator with the Substance Abuse Coalition, said she was impressed by the turnout.

“It just shows that there are a lot of good people left in the world and that people do care and people want to do good and be there for each other,” she said.

As for why she wanted to hold a vigil in Charlestown, Lundin said, “I just felt it’s important for the community and Boston as a whole to not live in fear and let this tragedy have power over them. I just think it’s very important that people know that God’s still here and still on their side and he still wants to protect them.”

Local residents Dennis Taylor and Cassady Sullivan sang “Amazing Grace,” followed by resident Michael Murphy playing the hymn on bagpipes.

The program also included a reading of the names of the three victims killed in the bombing and a crowd singing of “God Bless America.”

Among those in the crowd was District 1 Boston City Council Sal LaMattina.

“What happened on Monday really impacted a lot of people, including myself. I happened to be out there at Abe & Louie’s when the second bomb exploded,” LaMattina said. “I felt that we’re one Boston and we need to be together during a crisis like this.

“I also wanted a chance to talk with some young kids. I don’t want people to hate. I think that when you hate it just makes us ugly, and we’re not ugly people, Bostonians. We’re good people, we’re caring people, and I’m hoping that this will make us a stronger Boston, where we really care for one another and help one another.”

LaMattina was in a building next door to where one of the bombs went off in the Copley Square area on Monday.

“I felt the ground shaking, I saw the aftermath. I saw the fear in people’s faces, people crying. It was really bad,” he said. “But I also saw people comforting each other and making sure they were all right.”

Also attending the vigil were friends Florence Johnson, Betty Howard, Eileen Locke and Helen Carpenter. Locke read about the vigil on Facebook and the four, who live in the same Charlestown building, arrived together.

“I think most people just felt so helpless,” Locke said of why she decided to come to the event. She added, “It was wonderful.”

Johnson said she was glad to see Charlestown’s young residents take charge in planning the vigil.

“The young people now are getting involved. That’s wonderful,” she said.

The ladies were still sitting on a park bench holding lit candles after the ceremony ended.

“It just felt good,” Howard said. “And no one’s rushing home.”