Jeffrey
Russell ran the last 12 miles of the Boston Marathon holding an
umbrella over his sister Jessie so she wouldn’t have to quit due to her
lupus.
“He knew I would have been very upset had I not finished,” said Jessie,
26.
Jessie was diagnosed with lupus during her junior year of high school.
The sun often bothers people with lupus, so running a marathon was a
gamble.
By mile 14, Jessie felt terrible and thought she might need to
stop.
“I thought, ‘the medical tent is up there. I just got to get a little
further and I can stop for a bit.’ Out of the corner of my eye, I see
this person running at me.”
Big brother Jeff had followed her along the route, taking pictures and
yelling encouragement. Jessie looked like she was fading and medical
tent volunteers told her to be proud she made it to Wellesley. The
course was about to be opened up to traffic and water stops would soon
be picked up. Jeff told Jessie to stop if she needed to.
“But he said ‘if it’s just the sun, I don’t want you to stop. I can be
your medical tent. I can be your water stop. Don’t worry about any of
that’,” Jessie recalled with tears in her eyes.
Jeff ran into Littlebits Toys in Wellesley and bought a children’s
umbrella with sharks on it. He said the sharks reminded him of Jessie’s
tenacity
In jeans and work boots, Jeff speed-walked next to Jessie wearing her
runner’s fanny pack. The pair took it step by step until finally
reaching the finish line at 7:16 p.m.
“I just love him. I absolutely could not have finished without him
there,” Jessie said.
The story originally appeared on YahooScreen (see the source link).
Source: YahooScreen
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