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Boston bomb survivor facing fears, returning to watch daughter run again

ATLANTA — The only metro Atlanta woman injured during the Boston Marathon said Wednesday that she's setting aside her fears and heading north to watch this year's race.

Anita Erickson was standing near the finish line with binoculars pressed up to her eyes when the bombs went off.

As a result of the blast and the chaos that followed, she suffered a black eye and shattered shoulder.

"I still have a little hard time with crowds, but I'm really determined to walk through this and face it because you overcome evil with good," she said.

Erickson told Channel 2’s Erica Byfield that it took six months to shake off what she lived through.

"A lady 10 feet from me, her shoes were blown off her feet.” Erickson said. “We rode in the same ambulance to the hospital.”

For the first time, Erickson shared photos from that day. In one picture, she's holding up her daughter's race bib and in the next, they’re sitting on the sofa attempting to smile.

"I think initially the emotions of sorrow and anger were really something to deal with, the emotional vulnerability and pain that you have at the beginning," Erickson said.

Erickson's daughter is the reason she's going back.

Juli Windsor was hoping to become the first little woman ever to complete the race.

Windsor was only half a mile from the finish line when the bombs went off and organizers forced her to stop.

Erickson says this year's race is about facing fears and watching her daughter's dream come true.

"I don't want the memories of last year to linger. I want the memories that I hope will be on Monday to replace all that for so many of us," she said.