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Original poster

To remind people of the minute silence

197 replies

Famalam13 · 21/10/2016 07:50

Posting here due to traffic.

Today is 50 years since the Aberfan disaster in which 116 children and 28 adults died. A minute silence will be held at 9:15am.

OP posts:
tibbawyrots · 21/10/2016 07:56

Thank you for the heads up - I didn't know anything about this until now!

Awful tragedy. Sad

FlapsTie · 21/10/2016 08:02

Oh that letter hits home. It's unthinkable. A whole village lost its children.

coffeetasteslikeshit · 21/10/2016 08:05

Thank you. And thanks for the link Alison, although it's reduced me to tears. 116 children. That's our whole village school.

Imsickofnamechanging · 21/10/2016 08:09

OP, I've just read your link. I've never heard about the Aberfan disaster. I'm lying in bed weeping after reading it. All those poor souls! Will definitely do the minutes silence for them. Thanks for sharing.

Bubblebloodypop · 21/10/2016 08:20

Thank you, I will be silent. How harrowing.

Emergefromthedark · 21/10/2016 08:20

Its 10 miles away from where I live. The village has an air of sadness even to this day and the cemetery is heartbreaking to see. It was an awful tragedy that was avoidable and the National Coal Board acted disgustingly in the aftermath - money raised after the event for the locals was taken by the government to use to remove the remaining tips. Everyone should know about it - it was a national scandal.

alisoncoggs · 21/10/2016 08:27

The deputy head carried out with five children in his arms Sad

Floggingmolly · 21/10/2016 08:28

Thank you, I didn't know either Sad

Str4ngedaysindeed · 21/10/2016 08:29

Maybe it's because I'm old but I am always surprised when people say ' I had never heard of it'. I guess we relate to things within our lifetime that we have grown up with. So so sad.

WizardOfToss · 21/10/2016 08:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

RachelRagged · 21/10/2016 08:30

Thank You , I didn't know about that so will observe the minutes silence.

That letter home, harrowing and so sad .

Rest in Eternal Peace ..

Floggingmolly · 21/10/2016 08:31

I didn't grow up in England, Str4nge

PinkSquash · 21/10/2016 08:31

All those lives, it's utterly harrowing listening to the stories of those who survived and the rescuers. Flowers

Original poster
Famalam13 · 21/10/2016 08:32

That's why my post was so matter of fact Wizard, I can't think of the words to say.

I am from Wales and have never come across anyone here who isn't aware. Every 21st October we were told at school and I am in my twenties.

OP posts:
tibbawyrots · 21/10/2016 08:34

I didn't know about the minute silence but I knew about Aberfan Sad

Sofabitch · 21/10/2016 08:34

Wow I had no idea. That letter in the guardian is harrowing... im going to get out of my car crying!

WizardOfToss · 21/10/2016 08:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LittleLionMansMummy · 21/10/2016 08:39

I had to write a news article about Aberfan for a geography lesson about 25 years ago. I was too young to really understand the enormity, and of course wasn't a parent myself at that time. I treated it as a project and nothing more. Only as the years passed did I begin to understand and only now as a mum to a 6yo who has just kissed my son goodbye for his day at school has it really hit me. That letter is truly heart wrenching. I'll be silent.

Starduke · 21/10/2016 08:42

I didn't know about this (born in the 80s in England)

It's awful, so so sad.

Imsickofnamechanging · 21/10/2016 08:44

Maybe it's because I'm old but I am always surprised when people say ' I had never heard of it'.

Str4nge I always find it strange when people struggle with understanding why others don't know about every event. It's very simple, perhaps they are not originally from here?

GinAndOnIt · 21/10/2016 08:45

Yes, we were taught about it in school in South Wales, and we would have some sort of event to mark it annually. I think that has died out now. My partner, who is English, has not heard about it.

I wasn't aware of the minutes silence though OP, so thank you for that.

50 years is not long ago at all. It's just so sad.

Piscivorus · 21/10/2016 08:46

Aberfan is the first news item I remember from my childhood. So tragic and that letter really does bring it all home

MissHooliesCardigan · 21/10/2016 08:48

My parents were raised very near there. I remember driving through Aberfan when I was about 6 and noticed that my DM had tears in her eyes and she told me what had happened there. I was too young to grasp the enormity of it but I remember thinking how sad the place felt.
There was a R4 programme this morning interviewing one of the survivors. He said that the surviving children would go out of the village to play as it was too upsetting for parents who'd lost children to see or hear them playing.
I know people mock Health & Safety but I'd like to think this couldn't happen now. It was not a random accident, it was entirely preventable.

LittleLionMansMummy · 21/10/2016 08:50

I'm in eastern England Gin and as soon as I told my parents I was doing a school project about it, they told me all about it. It was in the days just before the Internet, so their recollection was the only real life point of reference I had.

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