AUBURN — Danielle L’Heureux learned that her sister, Michelle, was hurt in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings when she received a frantic Facebook message from her aunt.

“Your sister almost didn’t survive – in Boston hospital – turn on the news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” her aunt wrote.

A few heart-stopping phone calls later, Danielle learned that Michelle was badly hurt, but she would survive. One of the explosions tore through a lower leg. She suffered other large wounds on her arms and legs, and was rushed into emergency surgery.

“I talked with her last night,” Danielle L’Heureux said Tuesday. “She’s missing a piece of her calf.”

Michelle L’Heureux grew up in Auburn and graduated from Edward Little High School in 1993. She moved to Quincy, Mass., in 1999. She is an agent for John Hancock Associates and works at the John Hancock Tower in downtown Boston.

She attended the marathon to cheer on her boyfriend. She was waiting for him near the finish line when the bombs exploded.

When her cousin, Natalie Cable of Limington, heard about the bombs, she was immediately worried.

“All of a sudden, I just remembered that my cousin was there,” Cable said. She fired off a quick text. “I was expecting her to text me back and say, you know, ‘I’m fine. I wasn’t in that area.'”

Instead, Michelle called.

“I knew instantly when I heard her voice something was wrong,” Cable said. “That’s when I started to shake.”

Michelle said she was being prepped for surgery at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital and asked her to call the family.

“She was upset, so of course I lost it,” Cable said. “That was really tough for me to hear her like that.”

Danielle L’Heureux had already heard a news bulletin about the bombing and was saddened, but she shrugged it off.

“I didn’t know Michelle was there,” she said. “I thought, ‘Oh, that’s horrible.’ Then, I went on with my day.”

Until she saw her aunt’s Facebook entry.

“You don’t think it’s going to happen to you,” Danielle said. “You don’t think it’s going to happen to a member of your family.”

She made panicked calls to family members. Finally, her father, Paul L’Heureux, called her back.

“She’s going to be OK,” he said. “She’s in surgery.”

Michelle was expected to undergo another surgery on Wednesday. Besides the injury to her leg, several wounds were too large to cover, likely forcing further operations.

Danielle L’Heureux planned to visit her sister this weekend, as soon as she could get away from work.

“She’s an absolute sweetheart,” she said. “She’s the person I call when I need someone to talk to.”

Cable described Michelle’s love of her dogs — “they’re just her children” — and her sunny personality.

“She’s a very, very sweet, happy person,” Cable said. “She’s always smiling.”

Though she’s desperate to get to her sister’s side, Danielle L’Heureux said she also has a long-term goal.

“I’m really scared because I know she can’t walk right now,” she said. “I just want to see her walk.”

dhartill@sunjournal.com