Rebecca Gregory’s story is a powerful testament to the human spirit’s resilience and grace. With a childhood marked by abuse and a life-altering event at the Boston Marathon, Rebecca has faced more than her share of adversity. Yet, instead of succumbing to despair, she has used her experiences to establish Rebecca’s Angels Foundation, which supports children and families navigating the aftermath of trauma. Through candid discussion with Dr. James Dobson, discover how Rebecca has transformed her life’s narrative and what she’s learned on her journey to recovery.
Welcome everyone to Family Talk. It’s a ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute supported by listeners just like you. I’m Dr. James Dobson and I’m thrilled that you’ve joined us.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, welcome back to Family Talk, the broadcast ministry of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. I’m Roger Marsh, and today we’re going to continue with part two of a fascinating continuing conversation featuring Dr. James Dobson and his in-studio guest, Rebecca Gregory. Now, as you may have heard, Rebecca was a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombings back on April the 15th, 2013. We just passed the 12th anniversary of that fateful day. And on today’s program, we’re going to hear a little bit more about her childhood and how she has moved forward to becoming the woman that God wants her to be here in the current age. Now, if you’re not familiar with her story, let me tell you just a little bit about it. Rebecca lost one of her legs below the knee in and has endured many, many surgeries due to an injury she suffered at the Boston Marathon bombings. Rebecca was there with her five-year-old son, cheering on a friend who was running. She wasn’t even involved in the race. But as they moved along the race course, they found themselves near the finish line waiting for her friend to finish, and that’s when the bombs went off. It was a horrific day, and terrible injuries were sustained by hundreds of people. But since that time, Rebecca has drawn closer to God and launched the nonprofit organization called Rebecca’s Angels Foundation to help other children and families overcome serious trauma. Rebecca is a speaker and author of the book called Taking My Life Back, My Story of Faith, Determination, and Surviving the Boston Marathon Bombing. Rebecca and her husband, Chris, now have two children, Riley and Noah. Recently, Rebecca has finished a few more surgeries and has been using a wheelchair while recovering. We hope you’ll join us all here at the James Dobson Family Institute in praying for her continued healing as she journeys back to walking again in the near future. Well, let’s listen in right now for the conclusion of Dr. Dobson’s conversation with Rebecca Gregory right here on Family Talk.
SPEAKER 03 :
Rebecca, the program we did together last time was so meaningful, and you articulated the things that you’d been through with this Boston Marathon bombing. But that’s not the only trauma in your life. You really had a pretty tough childhood, didn’t you? Do you mind talking about that?
SPEAKER 02 :
No, I don’t mind at all.
SPEAKER 03 :
Because that kind of leads up to what you went through back in 2013.
SPEAKER 02 :
I think my whole life has just been a series of these sink or swim moments, and it started when my dad was very abusive, and he was also an evangelist who traveled all over the world preaching.
SPEAKER 03 :
So you were a preacher’s kid.
SPEAKER 02 :
I was. So I would sit in the front row every Sunday and clap and cheer, and then I would come home, and behind closed doors, he was a totally different person. And the nights where he was out or the weeks that he was gone, I remember sitting on this one particular spot on the windowsill, just praying to God that he wouldn’t come home because I was terrified that he was either going to kill me or my mom. He did. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
How else did he be verbally abusive?
SPEAKER 02 :
He was very verbally abusive. So nothing was ever good enough for him. I remember at that time, you know, he would get mad if we didn’t clean our plates. He would get mad if the TV was up too loud, if the cartoon was on that he didn’t like. He got mad over everything. And so anything and everything really upset him.
SPEAKER 03 :
He was not a drinker, was he?
SPEAKER 02 :
No, he just had a really bad anger issue at that time. And then later on, I think he got into some other things. But my mom was very brave and very courageous and ended up leaving that situation. But my sisters and I still had to go back and forth every other weekend and every Thursday to his house. And there were days where he would kind of leave us at school. We had our suitcases and all ready to go to his house. And we would just be left on the curb because he wouldn’t pick us up or anything. We would go to his house, and we couldn’t eat for the weekend because he would say he had no money.
SPEAKER 03 :
So he had joint custody.
SPEAKER 02 :
He had custody every other weekend and every Thursday night, so almost.
SPEAKER 03 :
Did you tell anybody? Did you reach out? Your mom obviously knew it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Mm-hmm. We were in and out of court, in and out of different supervised visits with him. There was a lot of different things going on. But unfortunately, my mom had to take a lot during that time. And with lawyers and attorneys and the court orders, it was just something we still had to see him. And so we would go to his house every other weekend and We wouldn’t eat for the weekend. We got to go to the gas station. I’ll never forget this. He told us that we could pick out something that cost $1. And at that time, I was looking for something big because I wanted to feed my sisters. I had two younger sisters. And so I would get those cinnamon roll packages that were $1. And I wouldn’t eat any of it, and I would give it to my sisters to eat so that they could kind of eat off that the whole weekend. Now, looking back, that probably wasn’t the healthiest choice, but my 11-year-old brain thought that that was a good idea at the time. But the last time that we saw him, we went to his house, and he started working at a casino. So he was a preacher on the side, and then he dealt cards at the casino, among some other things. And I was… I was bringing women in and out of the house and some really bad friends. We didn’t live in a great neighborhood. And he left us alone one night and the air conditioning went out. It was in the afternoon when he left us and he wouldn’t have been back until that following day because he had a job at the casino. And so my sisters ended up getting really hot. They started hyperventilating. I put them in the shower to cool them off. And I was so terrified because I knew that if I called my mom or called the police, I didn’t know what he was going to do to me. But at that point, it didn’t matter about me and my survival. It meant my sisters. And I knew that I had to get them help. And so we called the police and my mom came and got us. And that was the last time we’ve ever seen my dad again or my biological father.
SPEAKER 03 :
You don’t even know where he is.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’m not sure. I know that he’s been in a lot of trouble in the last several years. I know that his job has been to kind of rip off people’s retirement accounts.
SPEAKER 03 :
Rebecca, where did you get this resiliency that we see today? Where did that come from? Common sense would tell you a child who’s been through those kind of things… And that wasn’t really the end of it. She got into a bad marriage also. And then, of course, the bombing. That’s more than most people have to put up with or take. And yet you have and you’ve got a smile on your face. Is that brought by your relationship with Christ or is it in your temperament or both?
SPEAKER 02 :
I think it’s both because my mom was really who set me on the path to Christ. Because even though these terrible things were happening and we didn’t understand it and she was trying to get us out of a really dangerous situation, she could only do so much. And I remember many nights her just saying, trust in the Lord with all of your heart and we’re going to be okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
She’s a hero too, isn’t she?
SPEAKER 02 :
She’s absolutely a hero. My mom doesn’t ever get enough credit. I can never say thank you enough to her. She’s the reason… I am who I am today. My mom is an amazing woman, and she’s been through so much in her life. And what she did, though, was never let that stop her from being the best mom she could.
SPEAKER 03 :
Eventually, she divorced your dad.
SPEAKER 02 :
She did. She divorced my dad, and she went on to remarry, and my stepdad actually adopted us, and he’s who I call my dad. He’s who saw my prom and saw me graduate and welcomed my kids and my marriage and everything. I mean, he is my dad. He’s the one that’s been there through all of it with me, and so I got a second chance. Do you feel his love? I do feel his love. He’s amazing to us, and He really brought a lot in that we were missing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, tell us about that relationship with a young man. That was kind of an impulsive marriage, wasn’t it?
SPEAKER 02 :
It was very impulsive. Yes. I was at the marathon with a guy that I was dating at the time. And so we went through this terrible tragedy together. And so all of a sudden, everyone wanted this fairytale ending. And I was dealing with so much physically as well as emotionally that I didn’t really even have time to really look at all of the red flags I was seeing and, you know, really figure out what was going on. And so it kind of
SPEAKER 03 :
Did he nurture you at all during that time?
SPEAKER 02 :
No, it wasn’t anything like that. And I look back on it, and we didn’t even really have a good relationship. I don’t even think we really knew each other. We had very little in common, and it was very emotionally abusive.
SPEAKER 03 :
Why did you marry him as you look back?
SPEAKER 02 :
i look back and i married him because i wanted it to be something that it wasn’t i felt like we survived this together we’re supposed to be together everyone’s telling us this the media got wind of it they gave us this amazing fairy tale wedding at the biltmore mansion i mean it just it was all it wasn’t me But at the same time, I wanted it to be something so much because I needed it at that point. I was struggling. I mean, I was a mess. Not only was my PTSD at its highest form, but also just, you know, I wanted some kind of normalcy in my life. I was struggling for that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now you were in chaos. So you married him after the bombing.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, I did. I married him after the bombing, and it was a very, very short-lived marriage because we should have never been married. The best thing that ever happened to me was getting a letter at the hospital after my amputation, and it was from a woman that he had been cheating on me with. And it said, make the best decision for you and your son and leave before he causes more damage. It was text messages, very explicit text messages from him and someone else. And it’s very embarrassing, but I know that a lot of people go through this and it’s part of my story and it makes me appreciate what I have now so much more. So I really choose to talk about it because I want people to know that are in, you know, emotionally or physically abusive relationships that they don’t have to stay that way. And there’s happiness outside of it. And if you make a mistake, you know, God is our redeemer and he forgives that.
SPEAKER 03 :
As we look back over your life, Rebecca, we see an abused child, a home that was not what it should have been, and it disintegrated, and then the bombing, and one thing right after another. I’m amazed that you landed where you are today.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I’m like a poster child for childhood trauma, I guess. But I take my life back every single day because I don’t want what’s happened to me to defeat me. Or if it does defeat me for a day, I don’t want it to defeat me for the rest of my life. Now, I am not naive to think that life after this is even going to be a fairy tale. Just because something bad happens in our lives doesn’t mean something else is not right around the corner. But we were never promised an easy life. And I may not be whole right now, but one day I will be. And that’s what I look forward to. This is only temporary.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, Rebecca, we’ve talked about some bumps in the road that you’ve had, which is an understatement. Your first marriage just was a mess, and the Lord has brought another man into your life.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Tell us about him. What’s his name?
SPEAKER 02 :
Chris is his name, and he is just amazing. I can’t say enough good things about him.
SPEAKER 03 :
He loves your kids.
SPEAKER 02 :
He loves my kids. In fact, he adopted Noah, too. And so he just is an amazing dad, amazing husband, and he’s actually my college boyfriend. Really?
SPEAKER 01 :
Really?
SPEAKER 02 :
So we reconnected after about 10 years. I saw that he was coming to Houston on a business trip and we had dinner and he told me I was the one that got away from him and he was going to come down to Houston and marry me. And I didn’t believe him. And four and a half months later, we were married on a beach in Jamaica.
SPEAKER 03 :
What does he do?
SPEAKER 02 :
Shh. He is in pipeline sales, so he sells piping to construction materials, couplings, valves, and fittings. He’ll get me on that.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’re happily married.
SPEAKER 02 :
Happily married. He’s wonderful.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’ve kind of come out of the valley and onto the mountaintop, haven’t you?
SPEAKER 02 :
I feel like I’m on a mountaintop right now. There’s so many things that happen to steal our joy on a regular basis, but when you just wake up thankful to be here and count your blessings, it’s a great day regardless.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I’d like you to talk to the person out there who has been through some similar things, maybe not the same, but tough things. Talk to that person.
SPEAKER 02 :
I think that if we allow ourselves to remain in a place where we are just so broken and we don’t think that there’s any hope left, then we don’t allow God to work the way that he can in our lives. So for me, I’ve had all of these different traumas. And if someone listening has had these traumas too, then they can relate. But really what I see is I see God through every one of those traumas. And I also see some of the things that I brought upon myself. So my life probably didn’t have to be as hard as it’s been if I had followed God’s way and not my own way. And now we have our foundation that is to provide it’s set up to provide mental health treatment for kids that have gone through trauma in their families. And it’s only because I have been through that. I know what that looks like. And it’s not just the bombing and it’s not just one or two others. It’s a whole lifetime of trauma that I’m using for a bigger purpose. We all have a purpose far beyond. More amazing than we can ever imagine. But we have to allow ourselves to trust in the Lord and have that relationship with him so that he can really open us up.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s very well said. Talk about that ministry. I want to know more about what you’re doing and how you do it. What’s the name of it?
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s Rebecca’s Angels Foundation, and we provide therapy treatment for children and families that have gone through their own traumas.
SPEAKER 03 :
How do you find out about them?
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s an application process, so they apply on our website, and we also just try to do the education piece around the different states that our board members live in, and then also on a national level, media-wise. But what we really want people to know is that they don’t have to live with their traumas anymore. So there’s actually ways that neuroscience has come so far, as you know, and you can actually reprocess those most traumatic memories because I believe that God designed our minds to heal. And we’ve partnered with some amazing organizations. We partnered with Art International. It’s Accelerated Resolution Therapy. And they had been doing different types of treatments for veterans that have come back for more. And we are now their branch for children and families. We connect them to therapists. So we either bring them to Florida if there’s not a provider in their area. We bring them down to Orlando, put them in a hotel, and pay for their flight and their therapy. Or we send them to the nearest provider that’s closest to them.
SPEAKER 03 :
First of all, what ages are you dealing with?
SPEAKER 02 :
We’re dealing with children as early as 4 years old to 21 years old, the more adults, and also their families.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. Suppose you have an elementary school child who comes, and the child has been physically and emotionally abused or sexually abused. How do you begin the process of helping that child heal?
SPEAKER 02 :
So they send in an application and then our board works to approve it. We also have an advisory board of different therapists. And then they can decide which therapy works best or would work best for the particular child’s needs. Because it’s not a cookie cutter thing. We don’t want to just have a one size fits all approach. And we’re really concentrating on generational trauma, too. So we’re trying to not only heal the child, but also the family members that are with that child because then if you heal a child or you make them feel better and then they go back into a household that has had trauma in it, then you’re just sending them back to the same place and eventually it’s going to be a reoccurring factor. So in one to six sessions, based on hand and eye movements, they activate both sides of your brain and actually reprocess the traumatic memories.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow. We read in Romans that all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. Has something good come out of the tragedy of a bombing?
SPEAKER 02 :
So many amazing things have come out of the tragedy. You look at even the survivors and the victims’ families, even people that lost their loved ones that day have now opened up these amazing organizations and foundations to give back because When we look back on it, there were millions across the world that were loving on us and supporting us in every part of this. So an act of hate that stretched a couple hundred feet was nothing compared to the good that we saw in people.
SPEAKER 03 :
How’s Noah doing?
SPEAKER 02 :
He’s wonderful. Noah got into therapy, the therapy that he needed early on, and the bombing is a story to him. It’s something that is part of his testimony, but he is no longer emotionally affected by it.
SPEAKER 03 :
But he remembers it.
SPEAKER 02 :
He remembers it. I don’t think he remembers it as much anymore because he was five, so he’s forgotten some things. But to hear him tell his testimony is a pretty cool thing, too.
SPEAKER 03 :
It is. Do you ever ask him to do that?
SPEAKER 02 :
I do because I want to know. And he wants to be involved in every aspect of our foundation because he says, Mom, I should be the president because without me, you wouldn’t have this foundation. So I said, yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, that’s a miracle in itself, isn’t it? Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
So it’s something neat that I hope continues and we’ll be able to pass on down to our kids one day.
SPEAKER 03 :
Talk about your book. First of all, you had a writer to assist you in writing this, right? Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
I did. But I’m really excited to write my own book, too.
SPEAKER 03 :
So that’s coming. That’s where I was leading.
SPEAKER 02 :
It is.
SPEAKER 03 :
You plan to write another one.
SPEAKER 02 :
I plan to write another one that is just me. And there’s so many different things that I feel like I can fill the chapters with. I mean, even the humorous things that happen when you’re an amputee. For instance, my daughter… loves to put things in my leg and hide my prosthetic leg from me. So I’ll come in the room and I’m in my wheelchair generally when I’m at home and I’ve had cereal in my leg. I’ve had baby dolls in my leg. It’s been under her bed many times. The airport is always a fun experience.
SPEAKER 03 :
She’s not embarrassed by this.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, she’s definitely not. And one day she will understand the magnitude of what it is. But right now she just thinks she’s got a mom with one leg and it’s completely normal. Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
How have you dealt with that? People stare at you? Oh, always.
SPEAKER 02 :
Kids are the best. They are the big starers because the adults, they stare and then they look away. But the kids, I mean, they just fixate their eyes on me. And that part, you know, I try to wear shorts and and dresses. And I still my mom was really worried I wouldn’t feel like a lady anymore. We had a conversation right after that. I got my amputation. She said, I just want you to get one of those legs that look like a real leg so you’ll feel like yourself. And I said, Mom, part of me doing this and accepting everything for what it is, is I’m going to get a fake robot leg and I’m still going to get my toes painted and I’m still going to wear shorts and dresses. This is my mark of survival and nothing else. And so I want people to ask me questions.
SPEAKER 03 :
So this has not affected your sense of self-worth?
SPEAKER 02 :
No, if anything, it’s brought more self-worth to my life, as crazy as that is, because I used to be so self-conscious and don’t get me wrong, I still am. But I have grown in so many different ways. And part of that is, you know, I can’t cover up what’s happened to me. This is not something I mean, I guess I can put jeans on if I don’t necessarily want some stairs one day. But part of me really accepting it is going around on a fake leg and not being ashamed of it.
SPEAKER 03 :
There’s no better way to end this two-day conversation than this, Rebecca. I’ve loved talking to you. You are a resilient woman. I said that in the beginning, and we now see the evidence of it. I trust that the Lord’s hand would continue to be on you. And on your children, you have two children.
SPEAKER 02 :
I do. Yeah. One of which they didn’t think I’d be able to have after Boston.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, they didn’t think you could get pregnant, did they?
SPEAKER 02 :
No. And we spent some time in the NICU. She was on a ventilator, and I almost lost my life again the weekend that she was born. But she’s as wonderful and healthy and sassy as ever, and I’m still here, too. You’ve got one.
SPEAKER 03 :
Whale of a story to tell. And as we said last time, you’re available to speak on this, not only what happened to you, but what God’s done in your life.
SPEAKER 02 :
So many things.
SPEAKER 03 :
And what a great message. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming and being with us. You’ve blessed all the people that are here in the studio, and I know you’ve blessed people across the country. I just trust that this is going to go out there and stick in somebody’s heart. That someone out there who was desperate, who was saying, I have been singled out by life. I can’t deal with this. I can’t accept it. And they’re victimized from there on. I hope this conversation has helped them get beyond it and begin to take their life back. Blessings to you. Give your husband my regards. Next time you come when you get this second book written, you come here and you bring him and you bring Noah and bring your daughter. What’s her name?
SPEAKER 02 :
I can’t wait. Riley.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay. Bring the whole family.
SPEAKER 02 :
I will. Okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey, bless your mom. I pray that the Lord would put his arm around her because she is a hero. You said it. I can see it. And as she listens to these broadcasts, she’s very much a part of it, isn’t she?
SPEAKER 02 :
She absolutely is. And she will be bawling her eyes out.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’re out of time. Have a good trip home.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, Rebecca Gregory certainly is a remarkable woman. What a powerful testimony we’ve heard over the past couple of programs here on Family Talk. I’m Roger Marsh, and I hope you’ve been encouraged by what Rebecca has had to share with us. Now, if you’d like to share this story from the past couple of programs, or if you’d like to listen to the broadcast again, remember you can always do so by visiting the Family Talk app. app or by going to drjamesdobson.org forward slash family talk. That’s drjamesdobson.org forward slash family talk. Well, as Holy Week continues leading up to Good Friday this Friday, Holy Saturday on Saturday, and then, of course, Easter Sunday, we know that a lot of people are celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but what does it mean to our children and to our grandchildren? Well, now is the perfect time to think about sharing our faith with our kids and helping them to understand that what we celebrate on Easter Sunday is more than just cards, flowers, candy, and Easter bunnies. Here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, we have a special resource for you that can help you navigate this important journey. We’ve put together a powerful guide based on the writings of Dr. James Dobson, and it’s called Sharing Jesus with Your Children. From teaching prayer and reading the Bible together to modeling your own faith right in front of your kids and grandkids, this free PDF is packed with insights that can transform your family’s spiritual legacy. Why not take a few moments with your family this week to explore these timeless principles? You can start today. It’s easy to do. Just go to drjamesdobson.org and download this free PDF. It’s absolutely free. Again, go to drjamesdobson.org and download the free PDF called Sharing Jesus with Your Children. Well, I’m Roger Marsh, and on behalf of Dr. James Dobson and the entire staff here at the JDFI, thanks so much for listening. Be sure to join us again next time right here for another edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, the voice you trust for the family you love. This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
Rebecca Gregory’s story is a powerful testament to the human spirit’s resilience and grace. With a childhood marked by abuse and a life-altering event at the Boston Marathon, Rebecca has faced more than her share of adversity. Yet, instead of succumbing to despair, she has used her experiences to establish Rebecca’s Angels Foundation, which supports children and families navigating the aftermath of trauma. Through candid discussion with Dr. James Dobson, discover how Rebecca has transformed her life’s narrative and what she’s learned on her journey to recovery.
