Marathon Survivors Give Back to Front Line Workers at Boston Hospital

Brothers Paul and JP Norden and their family are providing meals to doctors and nurses at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where Paul spent two weeks after the bombing

NBC Universal, Inc.

On One Boston Day, seven years to the day that changed the city forever, a Massachusetts family is giving back to the place that means so much to them.

Brothers Paul and JP Norden each lost a leg during the marathon bombings on April 15, 2013. Paul spent two weeks at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

"What they showed my family that day we could never repay but we can let them know how grateful," their mother Liz Norden said. "They saved my son's life that day so that could never be repaid but we can let them know that we are grateful."

The Norden family recently had the idea to donate hundreds of meals to those same doctors, nurses, janitors, housekeepers and other hospital workers who are now on the front lines again battling the coronavirus pandemic.

The idea came to them after a doctor they know was wearing a T-shirt with a photo of her boys and the words, 'Boston Strong.'

"I sent the picture to my sons of the T-shirt that she had on and they were like, 'we have to do something this year for the nurses and the doctors and everyone,'" Liz Norden recalled.

With the help of Boston-based restaurant, 'A Leg Forever and Black Jack Pasta,' they are donating 700 meals - 100 for each year since the deadly bombings.

"You know, this is a really powerful and meaningful donation for us," said Marsha Maurer, Chief Nursing Officer at BIDMC. "To have the Norden family so generously return and return the gift for us, it really comes full circle really."

The Nordens were expected to be at the hospital Wednesday evening when the meals were handed out.

"Just to know that we are able to pay it forward a little bit, a little bit of kindness and hopefully they know that we are thinking of them and they are really angels on earth," Liz Norden said.

Contact Us