Remembering Aberfan

[AngeloMysterioso]

58 years ago today. I feel so desperately sad thinking of those children and their families, of the adults who died saving or trying to save them. A whole village, almost every child lost, their lives literally swept away.

And still we bitch and moan about “health and safety gone mad”, and still large corporations are still constantly trying to cut corners and circumvent laws designed to keep people safe. To keep them alive. Really, were any lessons learned?

I just cannot imagine the grief. Especially now I have small DC of my own. I’ll hug them tighter today and think of those children and the people who loved them.

The episode of the Crown which covered it was very moving.

I started reading a Terrible Kindness but didn’t get past the first few chapters. It’s a hard read.

I didn’t know about Aberfan until I was in my twenties. It’s something they should teach in schools definitely.

I work in the public sector and there is a general lack of trust in us (esp since the post office scandal). I can imagine the people of Aberfan never being able to trust again.

Also remember reports of the disaster fund scandal where donated funds were misused by the then government for safety works at other sites instead of to benefit the victims.

Also thinking about it today.

My mother lost her niece in the disaster.
Her brother and his wife never recovered from it but carried on for their other children.
Our grandfather took part in the rescue/recovery.

Such a tragedy. Remembering the lost and the bereaved today.

I was just about to post about this book. Although fiction it contains a lot of accurate information that is perhaps not obvious from the headlines. We'll worth reading imo. And the Govt & the NCB should (still) be ashamed. ALL those deaths were preventable.

My mum went to the school (before the disaster) so I grew up always knowing about it. We have visited the graveyard, such a sad desolate place.

I recently visited the memorial and the cemetery and cried, my heart goes out to anyone affected 💜
Heartbreaking that the promised compensation never happened.

There’s a beautiful work by Karl Jenkins and Mererid Hopwood called “Cantata Memoria: for the children” which was written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the tragedy.

You can see it at the link. It starts at about 7 minutes. There’s a section where the children and adults who died are named: that starts at about 20 minutes in.

It’s matched with moving images shown behind the orchestra and singers.
I can’t listen to it without crying.

YouTube link here.

I actually thought it had happened during my lifetime, my young years were in Nottingham which still had coal trains and slag heaps visible from the house, I was very aware of the tragedy and I just send nothing but love to the bereaved and wish those lost rest in peace 🙏🏽

I always shed a tear on the anniversary. It happened before I was born but it was something I'm aware of the adults around me talking about as a child, so it stayed with the people of Wales long after. Thank you for the thread and to other pp's for the book recommendation.

Our family are from a mining town.
I remember Aberfan and my parents weeping when they heard the news. Heartbreaking.

OP, thank you for reminding us all. Thoughts for all those who lost loved ones.

My mother said that she had never heard of Aberfan before then but she was devastated by the news, and she said that it’s the only time she’d seen my father shed tears other than at family bereavements. It must have been profoundly shocking. I think huge numbers of donations arrived from kind people all over the world but as a pp said, it’s unclear where they all went.

Appalling Disaster.
Cannot begin to imagine the terror and distress of the parents and children.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🙏

Goodbye Mammy
Goodbye Mammy I'm going to school,
That wind whipping my nose is raw and so cruel,
I'm playing with friends now, we're having such fun,
Skipping and jumping but I like to run!
Teacher called us in, we've finished our play,
Lessons are starting let's begin our day.
Something just rumbled, it wasn't my tummy,
I'm scared it's so dark, oh please help me Mammy.
Please don't cry Mammy, it doesn't hurt anymore,
They found me at last, where I lay on the floor.
I have to go Mammy, teacher's calling my name,
But she says it's alright for I'll see you again.
When your days are over, we can play in the grass,
In that beautiful garden that once was Pantglas.
Until then my Mammy just know I am near,
I'm safe with my Teacher there is no more fear.
We all get to play now, just like that cold day,
When the sky turned so dark and we all went away.
Aberfan - 21st October 1966
By Becky Clemett – 21st October 2019

😭

Also, as the Grenfell tragedy and similar teaches us, in some respects things haven't changed as much as they should. Corporates wanting a profit or public bodies trying to save money still make decisions that can have tragic consequences.

Agreed.
Shocking.

Sending love to all those still affected by this.
Not just those who lost family members, but also everyone from the area, and those who went to help.

I brought my first baby home from the hospital, everyone came to see her, all the new aunts and uncles and grandmas, next day, the 21st I had her all to myself for the very first time. As I was feeding her around tea time the news began to come in about Aberfan. I sat there with my newborn in my arms and wailed for all those heart broken parents, and every year, when my daughters birthday comes around I cry again for Aberfan. On her 6th birthday, as i making a list for the food I had to get, jelly ice cream lemonade etc, I turned the paper over and wrote this, never written blank verse before or since, never written a poem in one go in just a few minutes. I left it with some flowers when I visited the cemetery in Aberfan a few years later.

Did God weep that day for Aberfan
Weep for the arrogance of men who raised a mound of death
And dared condemn him when it fell
England wept, wept for the empty beds and the quiet streets,
And wales wept, wept for her wasted young.
Grudging she risked her sons
in the sullen dark for the dull black gold
And stoic, with the cold dead in the cold clay
Payment made to the raped earth
But this was a dear price, too dear
To pay with the future for the careless past
With precious for a heap of slag
And I wept, wept with an aching womb
For the lost seeds of immortality
Wept we all for Aberfan.

An English mother

With the precious for a heap of slag

I was almost 4. I still recall my confusion when my dad came home from work, scooped me up, and hugged me, as he cried.

Yes, I remember watching it. Very sad.☹️

Any time there is anything on the tv about Aberfan I watch it and cry. It is impossible to comprehend what the families went through. I find it very moving that people still remember.

I did my Geology degree in S Wales, about 10 miles from Aberfan. My Head of Department has bee a young trainee with the NCB at the time, and was one of the first ncb employees on the scene. On his 50s, he cried when he told us about the disaster. As an engineering geologist, I have worked on many, many slope stabilisation projects, and I always have Aberfan at the back of my mind.