RE: FN-FORUM: OT 2 minute silence

date posted 14th July 2005 13:57

Well I did stand outside and stood in silence for a while - no watch so did
not count any time. I suppose it was really stupid of me to think others
would take my post for what it was and not make some quasi-political
argument about who said what, how many minutes etc etc. I am on my own here,
I just felt I wanted to be with other people - even strangers on the street.
It hadn't occurred to me stand outside till I saw the news last night and I
thought - yes that is what I could do and not just sit on my own in silence
bearing in mind that is what I do most of the time. And I thought just
perhaps some others felt as I did and would welcome the suggestion, note the
word suggestion, to show solidarity.

I didn't pray as I do not believe, but part of me was thinking how grateful
I was that it hadn't been my husband or anyone I knew and I cannot imagine
the lives of those who lost their loved ones or who came close to doing so.
We played the 'what if' game over the weekend, it is unavoidable, you keep
repeating it, what if my husband had left on time, ten minutes earlier, that
Thursday morning and decided to stay on to Holborn, as he does on occasions
when he gets a seat, and takes the first carriage of the train as he always
does. What if I had made him move quicker that morning so I could use the
bathroom. See they are silly what ifs - but many of us, our friends and
relatives have played the game too. Then you hear how your friends husband
just missed that fateful Kingscross train - the doors closing before he
could get on, or the niece of one of the workers at your daughters playgroup
was on that train, had to walk along the rails, came out covered in soot. Or
the father of my other daughter's teacher actually being on the second
carriage. The striking thing is how everyone we have spoken to since
Thursday knows someone who was involved or had a near miss and believe me
that isn't a wide group of people.

I only had to wait 15 minutes to hear my husbands voice on Thursday morning
after the first bombs and his message was 'I am on a bus, don't know which
one or where it is going', and then hearing there had been an explosion on a
bus! It took another hour and half to get through to him and during that
time they reported another two bombs on buses - which were subsequently
wrong. And that was my anguish for a few hours. Many hundreds of people were
affected just like me - just a few hours of torment, can you imagine how
many more thousands of people were REALLY effected by this, those who were
injured and all their relatives and friends. Was it 700 injured in all?

So I did stand outside to show anyone who may look on how I felt, rather
then sit drinking tea or listening to music, contemplating to myself.

Theresa
ps sorry for this rant, but I do feel better now I got it off my chest ;-(