Repetition for a use?

I have two separate spots in NWFO there Brendan is told how he was brought across to Houston after the bombing. My initial thought was to cut one...but now I'm thinking I'll just change them, a bit. The first one's being told by Aunt Mari prior to Brendan being seen by a cardiologist. The second by Mairead when she comes down from Toronto to visit, with her family. That's 3 years after Aunt Mari's version.

I need to solidify this and make it believable. Brendan was badly hurt by the explosion, so the most logical thing to do would be for him to die and be buried, in secret. It can't be known he was there, a Catholic lad near a Protestant's shop just before a bomb goes off. It would like the attack to his family and into the leadership of PIRA,, so he has to be done away with.

It's Colm who scrambles to get Bernadette and she pushes back against him dying, hard. Something else he doesn't understand, since he thinks she hates him. I've already had him work out how the bomb was transported and set, and that it was just bad luck that it blew early. If all had gone according to plan, Brendan would have ben on the train to Dublin and Joanna nowhere near the shop.

This feeds into his growing belief that we only have the illusion of control over our lives, and that shit happens to everyone, no matter how careful you might be. I had a bit of this in Bobby Carapisi, where Eric tracks down another man who was raped by Alan and his buddies and finds him at peace with what happened. His comment on how he chose to be that way instead of angry and bitter stemmed from a therapist who told him...

If you're driving to work but get broadsided by a drunk and wind up hurt and hospitalized, are you going to sit around and mope and cry and curse your fate? Or are you going to call work, tell them what happened, get yourself healed, realize it was not your fault, and rebuild your life?

It helped Eric grow a bit more understanding about his situation and begin to listen to Alan's version of his attacks...and slowly come to realize the man is just as damaged as he is. With that understanding, he began to heal.

I'm not doing that with Brendan. Not even sure it will be his final understanding. But it's a good stepping stone across a rushing brook.