If Not for the Perfect Stranger

After the worst happened, Boston was at its best. A series of perfect strangers provided life saving and life sustaining assistance to spectators and runners in need. From a shirt ripped off to be used as a tourniquet for the critically wounded, to a sweater, phone call, or just a hug for the cold, lost and scared. Over 40 spectators, runners and first responders share their stories of the moments of grace that not only saved lives, but created unbreakable bonds.

Sitting about 60 feet across Boylston Street from the first explosion, Diane Montiel did what every other person around her in the grandstands was doing -- obeying a Boston policeman's orders to get out. But, through the smoke and chaos, Diane could see people running in, and as it turned out not all of them were trained first responders. When Celeste Corcoran, a spectator who lost both legs in the explosion,told NBC's Brian Williams that, if not for a perfect stranger, her daughter Sydney would have died, the seed was planted for what became this collection of over 40 stories from the perfect strangers who saved not only Sydney Corcoran's life, but many others, as well as sustaining the lives of stranded, lost, hypothermmic and delusional runners. Along with her husband, Steve Alexander, who was a half block away when the bombs went off trying to make his way to the Forum Restaurant to meet a client, Diane interviewed dozens of people to get the first-person accounts of how random acts of kindness made a difference that day.