Remembering Hillsborough

[Pinkjenny]

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. I know the grief is not confined to Liverpool, but as a scouser today, I want to share my memories of that day.

My dad is a staunch Liverpool FC supporter. He has held a home season ticket for as long as I can remember, but hardly ever goes to away games. I remember that day was unseasonably warm, I was 11 years old, and my dad was on his way to Sheffield for the game. I was with my mum and my grandparents, going to a market in Prescot as we always did on a Saturday.

We were in the car, and my grandad had the radio on. I remember hearing the reports on the radio, the commentator had total panic and hysteria in his voice, I don't really recall what was said, but I know the atmosphere in the car completely changed, and we headed for home, much earlier than usual. As far as we were aware, my dad was in the Leppings Lane terrace, and my mum must have been completely distraught. I know she held it together for me as I don't remember her weeping or wailing at all.

We got back to my grandparents house, and just as we were about to call the family and friends helpline, my dad rang. He had got a stand ticket about half an hour before the match, from a friend of a friend, and was safe and on his way home.

My mum and I went home, and I stayed outside, waiting for him to come home. When he finally pulled up, I asked him what had happened, and he merely shook his head and went inside the house. I remember he sat down, and didn't speak for about a week. It was awful, the tension was unbearable.

To this day, my dad has never spoken about what he saw, but in his more emotional moments, he has told me how he felt when he pulled up and saw me standing at the top of the road waiting for him to come home. He has never even looked at a copy of The Sun since.

One of my schoolfriends lost her dad, my dad lost one of his friends.

I just wanted to get all that out, and pay tribute to the families of the 96 people that weren't as lucky as we were on 15th April 1989.

BIL was there.
He went with FIL's boss and the son of the other guy who worked with them. BIL is a Liverpool fan but the other two are Forest supporters so they were in the opposite end from where everything happened. None of them really talk about it but I do know that they left pretty sharpish after the game was called off - BIL thinks that FIL's boss thought there was a riot going on and wanted the boys out of it
MIL remembers panicing all day until they got home - they live near Grantham so, even tho they left early, they didn't get home for hours. They hadn't realised what was happening as they didn't have a radio in the car so they didn't stop and phone home to say they were OK.

I really hope that there is a re-opening of the public enquiry.
RIP the 96.

yerblurt I heart you

geordieminx, thank you - and glad you like my username, blert is such a scouse word (just like "queg" - as your DH, he'll know what I mean )

... glad to see Andy Burnham get the response he deserves. How he had the gall to appear representing the government who have the power to order a public enquiry, instead he left with his tail between his legs, the arrogant slimy little toerag.

Apparently "ya quilt" was another choice insult when he was a kid

Whereabouts in l'pool are you? Our best friends live in Aintree, dp grew up in Cantrell Farm, we are down there quite a lot.

"yer quilt" , quality, they're all coming back!

blurt, queg, meff, quilt - you can make up a whole new subgenre of language

I grew up a sh*tehole called Kirkby, truly a monstrosity of 60s out of city planning, couldn't wait to get out of there!

I listened to the radio4 programme that edam mentioned earlier, I cried throughout. It was very honest and the families were so brave.

The Sun haven't apologised yet but I still think they should.
It is just all so sad

Although I was 17 when it happened, the tragedy really passed me by, I am ashamed to say.
I have been appalled and moved by this remembrance and am grateful that so much has been made of it today.
That list of names is enough to make me weep.
I didnt realise so many children were killed.
I watched the doc on the History channel it was so distressing.
Those poor poor families. I hhope they get the jusice they deserve.

I was 11 and I remember watching it on the TV. My parents were Sun readers and the face of a girl being squashed into the fence has always haunted me. It is so sad. I can't imagine the pain the families have been through.

Without wishing to sound like a Daily Mail reader, I do think that there should be discussion about making some legal provision to try people allegedly responsible for many deaths in their absence if they claim, like David Duckenfield and Augusto Pinochet, to be too sick to stand trial.

I read that Observer article the other week and thought well, sometimes the Japanese really had the right idea. If you have failed in your job to the point that 96 people were crushed to death, the only morally correct course of action is to leave a note apologising for all the pain you've caused and disembowel yourself.

I was 13. The dad of a girl in the year below me at school was killed. The whole thing is so so sad.

My thoughts are with the families and friends and everyone affected by this awful tragedy.

The stories on this thread are so sad. As is seeing the names, how terribly young some of the victims were. It's absolutely heartbreaking

My recollection:-

I must have been 19, with a small baby on my knee. I lived in nottinghamshire with my parents. My grandfather was a season ticket holder and supporter of Liverpool. He usually came to stay with us when they were playing in the area. That day came to stay but he he decided not to go to the game. We watched the match on telly.

Then the phone calls started coming, from Ireland, from Canada, from the US.

They had all seen it on their news, and were ringing to tell us that he was not answering his home phone; Was he OK?; he was with us.

I understand that he knew people who died, he had been a senior probation officer and charity worker who was active in many communities.

Sympathies for those families that were effected in a way that we were lucky to avoid.

I hope in the end that someone is held accountable.

I've been reading these.

pinkjenny for you
I also remember the day.I was working a weekend on call in a hospital in st helens,liverpool when we were sat in the common room as the very odd scenes from the game came on.
My overwhelming reaction~where are the ambulances?Why is nothing happening?
That evening saw some patients with minor injuries who had travelled back~sad is not enough,outrage doesn't come close,incomprehension and frustration also not enough to describe it.
and for all affected

I watched that programme last night. I remembered watching it on tv as it happened from the footage- dont know now if horror or years had buried it until then, probably a mix. Dh was unaware of the whole Sun thing as well as was very .

Really hope the whole press release thing today is not just sickening PR but the start to some genuine justice for all the famillies. That lsit of names makes sickening reading- DS1 asked what age the youngest was, erm about six months older than you .

Terribly heartbreaking but thanks for this threads role in educating me more.

'Without wishing to sound like a Daily Mail reader, I do think that there should be discussion about making some legal provision to try people allegedly responsible for many deaths in their absence if they claim, like David Duckenfield and Augusto Pinochet, to be too sick to stand trial.'

I am the least DM person I know yet I wholeheartedly agree with you; justice has to be seen to be done for the famillies, friends, communities and it is as much about asnwers and absolutes as punishments.

I lived next to Penny Lane at the time and the S*n boycott was furious,and the entries in The Echo heartbreaking.
I remember wondering what it must have been like being on call that weekend in Sheffield instead of liverpool.

Dh didnt beleive about the Sn at first as he said they wouldnt ahve moved their entire print works to liverpool as they have done recnetly: consider him now educated and disgusted.

I watched Hillsborough last night. It was more heartbreaking to me, now watching it as a mum. I hugged dd a little tighter last night, and I think my dad was glad the anniversary has come and gone, to be honest.

Thanks for everyone who responded, especially InTheseShoes. Ler's hope one day justice is served.

i have just started a thread about eactly the same thing sorry i didnt see you had started this one

my dad was at hillsborough. i remember it clear. i remember everyone screaming and my mum phoning the phone number over and over again.
my dad worked for b.t so he had a mobile phone. he handd his phone out so people could get hold of tere familys.
he helped pull bodies over the wall and said you just knew it was too late.
there was one amulance that day and what it did was too little too late. most stopped outside the ground.

my dad said as he was pushing people out of the ground the SCUM POLICE were pushing them back in.noone was alowed to get out

he said there were creams to open the gate and they just wouldnt. they are the cause of the death of the 96 people. they cover it up today what the thousands there or the few police who just lied about the whole thing.

my dads friends died and his other friend lost his two sons the trynors they were still young
went out as a family and came bk alone.

the reports of this hapening to the ground wre told to be a danger many yrs before this hapenned with the tunel being to small and the cage buti took till this .

i went to anfield yday what a moving ceremy it was. 30 ooo turned up they were expecting 10,000. but how sad every one sobbing noone could hold there tears in, all grown men to children sobbing.

lts download that song the fields of anfield road its number 15 now lets get it to number 1

I remember watching th Jimmy McGovern programme in 1996 thinking what a brilliant account it was. Last night (probably because, as someone else has already commented- Im now parent) I was really, really moved by it.

Obviously mobile phones were not around (much/at all)in 1989, so I found watching the Ricky Tomlinson character and his wife transfixxed to the TV, hoping to see their children utterly heartbreaking.
The 'not knowing' on the day must have been awful.

I agree QM. I thought it was brilliantly acted, and I know the guy who Ricky Tomlinson played said it was an honest and truthful account.

I read an account by a paramedic in one of the Scottish papers at the weekend. His was the only ambulance allowed in. It was heartbreaking reading about him trying to help people, all the time looking around, wondering where the other ambulances were.

He had to leave the ground in the end because the ambulance was full and said he would always regret his decision to leave. He received a commendation and he ripped it up saying he didn't deserve it [sad.]

if anyone wants to watch the Jimmy McGovern drama it's on ITV3 for the next 29 days