To remind people of the minute silence

[Famalam13]

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.

I know about Aberfan (I'm in my forties and from the SE) but didn't know about the minutes silence. Thank you OP.

I read about this for the first time the other day and was in tears reading an interview with one of the mums. She described a row with her daughter as she didn't want to go to school. The mum made her get ready, returned home and thought phew I can drink my cuppa in peace. Then she heard an awful rumbling and the school was gone.

She did nothing different to me with my children many mornings yet i don't know if I'd ever get past it if i was her. To think she had that as her last memory is horrifying. My heart absolutely breaks for her and the other parents and families.

This reporters letter is tragic and has again reduced me to tears. I hope I never witness such horror in my lifetime because words fail me at the thought.

Thank you very much for this post OP as I didn't know there was to be a minutes silence.

Thank you - I read the BBC article this morning and it reduced me to tears. I knew about it but not the scale and the response of the Coal Board afterwards.

I didn't know there was a silence so will be observing and lighting a candle for those lost unnecessarily.

What a tragedy.

I have never heard of Aberfan either str4nge - I grew up in Scotland in the 80s/90s so am well aware of Dunblane/Lockerbie/Ibrox disasters etc

I don't find it strange at all that someone who isn't local or born at that time doesn't know about things. We can't be expected to know every detail about all of life's tragedies

Anyway OP thanks for bringing it to my attention, I will read about Aberfan now and observe the silence.

There is a really good article about it on the BBC: www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-150d11df-c541-44a9-9332-560a19828c47

I grew up in London in the 80s and although I've heard of Aberfan, I don't think it recieves the same coverage as other, similar disasters. Until today, I had no idea of the extent of the ineptitude and duplicity of the Coal Board. Shocking that it's not spoken about more really.

I plan to do this.

Such an unimaginal horror.

RIP the lost of Aberfan .

That letter has reduced me to tears. I will be silent at 9:15. Thank you for reminding people, OP.

This is absolutely heartbreaking. You just can't imagine the pain of losing a child and having to wait, watching, knowing that it will not end happily.
This is the first time I have heard of this

I have to say though, as dreadful as it was I'm sure of the accuracy of that letter. The coal slurry wasn't hot, it wouldn't have burned the skin of the children - it was basically mud and small coal stones. Many of the parents and rescuers have said that most of the people didn't have a mark on them injury wise, they died from suffocation, not burns. I do believe there is some poetic licence going on with that letter.

I don't mean to be disrespectful - it was and is a great tragedy but it annoys me when I see it exaggerated, its not nice for the families.

My Dad was a mining safety engineer and although we were not in Wales I was aware of Aberfan from a young age (born after 1966).

My elderly parents always remember. It is absolutely heartbreaking.

It's the main story I remember from my childhood too - I was eleven and my brother nine. I remember my form tutor talking about it one morning saying "They were just in the classrooms ready to start their day, like we are now ..."

However until I watched a documentary the other day, I hadn't realised about how badly the NCB had acted - they even charged the council for the caravans erected to house the people whose homes had been destroyed as well as the using of funds for moving the slag heaps - which they should have done themselves. I think the money has been restored now, but it took decades. I believe some engineers were found to be at fault but nobody more senior.

I hadn't realised about the silence - unfortunately I am expecting a delivery at about that time so I will hope it's a bit late or early so that I can join in.

Emergefromthedark I think she is talking about slow chemical burns, after suffocation.

Those poor children, poor families.

We learnt about this at school in England. I have watched the programmes that have been on. Disgusting the way they were treated and having to pay to help the clean up.

I shall be observing the silence and lighting a candle too. Thanks for the post and the link to the letter- I have no words.

"Even now, I am trying hard not to feel, because once you feel, it will be too hard to bear."

Has anyone read the essay Laurie Lee wrote about Aberfan when he went there a year after the tragedy? It is a very moving piece of writing.

Thanks for letting me know. I remember my Mum telling me about it as a kid (she was a similar age to the children who died when it happened) and I just could not comprehend that something so awful could happen to children whilst at school.

An appalling tragedy - I will be thinking of Wales today as they mourn. I went to the Brecon Beacons in 1984 on a school trip and we went to the Big Pit and were told about the disaster at Aberfan as we drove nearby. We couldn't imagine the horror. But reading that letter and now, as a mum, I could weep for those families and that village.

Gladstonbury When you say they you mean the families? The families had to pay towards cleaning up . Can anyone recommend a best source to read up about this terrible event?

Thank you for this post. I will be thinking of Aberfan at 9.15.

I knew about Aberfan, despite not being around until long after it happened but that might be because I'm from another mining area so anything 'pit disaster' related is always in everyone's conciousness.

My dad was lucky to escape another very prominent mining accident just before I was born, where several miners died and I remember several times in my childhood him coming home from work early 'because someone had been killed at work'. .

I'm not sure that saying one is surprised when others haven't heard of an event which seems major to you should be seen as insulting.
I don't think it was meant so.
If I meet someone who had never heard of Dunblane it always surprises me because of how enormous an event it was to me. That's not a criticism of others - it's recognition of how much it affected me.

I'm Welsh living overseas now, but will be observing from my office in Switzerland today. I'm in work and feeling very tearful about it. I will have to find a quiet room to go to.

And angry actually. Very angry on behalf of the community of Aberfan. For the negligence before the tragedy and the treatment of the situation afterwards.

But today is about the remembrance of those little innocent souls.

I'll be silent and lighting some candles to remember all the lives lost.

A retired colleague of mine was in secondary school 13 miles away on that fateful,day and remembers hearing a loud 'rumbling' sound like a jet plane at the time of the disaster.
They were all sent home from school as it was feared that some of heir siblings were at the Aberfan school
Even to this day a loud sound reminds him of this tragedy
RIP

RIP to the victims of Aberfan.