Former Nanuet Resident Describes “Surreal” Atmosphere

Former Nanuet resident Aime Goldberg Macdonald now in Somerville, MA., described the current situation as “surreal.”

Macdonald said as of Friday afternoon Somerville, near Boston, was not on official lockdown but residents have received emails, texts and robo calls advising them to stay inside. Macdonald said the Cambridge area where the Boston Marathon bombing suspects had been is not far from the Cambridge/Somerville border.

She commented on New City Patch’s Facebook page today, “It is (a) ghost town here and around the Boston area, no trains or buses running, no one walking on the street, very few cars out. Pretty crazy for these areas which are so highly populated and intertwined. I have friends in Watertown who got calls around 2am to remain inside and some who live near the suspects did - pretty scary.”

Macdonald and her husband Jon were helping at a water stop along the Boston Marathon route on Monday when the two bombs went off.  She said another volunteer got a call that something happened near the finish line and then they saw runners on their cell phones. Then the runners stopped coming because police had instructed the volunteers at a water stop before theirs to form a human chain to stop the runners.

When the flow of runners halted, she went to get her phone and immediately received a call from her brother-in-law about what happened and asking they how were. Then she got multiple texts and calls from friends checking on her but she could not get through to them.

“It was just heartbreaking because you were trying to get to these people,” Macdonald said.

When she reached one friend, Macdonald asked her to post on Facebook that they were all right.

She said the blasts occurred in front of the building where she works as a real estate attorney now and a running store where she had previously worked. On Sunday, the Macdonalds and some of their friends ran in a 5K race that is part of the weekend festivities leading up to the Boston Marathon.  That race ended at the same finish line as the marathon.

“It was kind of surreal because we were all there the day before,” she said on Friday.

After describing Monday as a scary day for Boston and runners, she said, “It kind of just shattered people’s sense of safety.” 

She is a member of a Watertown running group and said the Boston-area running community is tight knit.

“Everyone knows someone who was there or who was injured,” she said.

Macdonald, who graduated from Nanuet High School in 1994 and remains friendly with Nanuet Cross Country Coach Sheri Dempsey, said she had experienced a lockdown while a student when there was an incident at the mall. She said the current situation was much different because “this is so much worse as you know what these individuals are capable of.”

Macdonald, who ran the Boston Marathon in 2002, said she and friends have been talking about entering it next year to show their support. She hopes the lockdown status ends soon.

“We’re just trying to stay sane here,” she said.