Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/327657
PHOTOGRAPHY BY HEATHER MCGRATH (FAMILY AT HOME); COURTESY OF THE STEPPING STRONG FUND (FINISH LINE) T o walk into the Reny townhouse is an elegant reminder of what hard work, an excellent education, and a strong upbringing can do. Carefully chosen art lines the walls of the four-story home. Tasteful bouquets of purple roses, fuchsia hydrangea, and white orchids punctuate the rooms. Framed black-and-white family photographs dot the shelves, arranged just so. This is the home that Steven and Audrey Epstein Reny built. It is warm. It is loving. It is perfect. It is where their 19-year-old daughter, Gillian, dreamed of becoming a ballerina; where their older daughter, Danielle, now 21, applied to Harvard College, and where she received the acceptance letter. It is where Steven and Audrey imagined growing old together—the natural evolution after sharing their youth together. They met at Weston High School—he a junior, she a sophomore. "We were high school sweethearts," Steven says. "We went to my junior prom together, and since then we've been a couple." Audrey continues, "People wonder, Is that how it really happened? But it really is. We fell in love and followed each other through college and our first jobs." They both graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and landed positions at Bain & Company. Steven went on to be the president of his family's manufac- turing company, while Audrey joined her family's real estate development group. No matter how busy work was, they both prioritized spending time with their beloved daughters. Life, as they say, was good. THE DAY IT ALL CHANGED For Gillian, it happened in slow motion. Screams. Pain. Red. Her legs. The legs she danced upon at the Boston Ballet school and onstage. Her dad, Steven, next to her… then down. Pavement. Smoke. Thunder ripping through his ears. Her mom, Audrey—her wrist hurts, but she's looking for Gillian, for Steven, for Danielle, who is a block away from the finish line. Running in the Boston Marathon. Sprinting. Trembling. Falling. Where is her family? She knows they were waiting for her by the finish line. In 12 seconds, life was no longer good. Gillian was rushed to Brigham and Women's Hospital. At 4 PM, Dr. Eric G. Halvorson, a plastic surgeon, saw Gillian for the first time. It was one hour after the bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, in what would be the worst terrorist attack on Boston soil. Gillian was unconscious on a gurney, draped with steel-blue sheets. "All I could see were her legs," Dr. Halvorson says. "I could tell that both were severely Crossing Lines THE RENY FAMILY HEALS ITSELF AND OTHERS WITH ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL RESEARCH FUNDS FOR BOSTON MARATHON SURVIVORS AND BEYOND. BY LISA PIERPONT LEFT: Danielle, Steven, Gillian, and Audrey Epstein Reny survived the Boston Marathon bombings last year. BELOW: The Reny family representing Team Stepping Strong. continued on page 56 54 BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM SPIRIT OF GENEROSITY