…that I love London town.”
This song from my childhood played on a loop in my head, as I walked towards and through the London Bridge and Borough area of London on Tuesday evening, just 3 days after the horrible attack on Saturday night, to catch a train.
I revelled in the familiar scenes around the City, and the ‘business as usual’ going on around me.
I bathed in the friendliness of all the other commuters making their unfamiliar way to London Bridge, around the taped-off areas of the attack. Unfamiliar because the normal route was inaccessible in the aftermath of the attack. We joined together to figure out where the detour went and what the best route might be.
The Globe Theatre
Individually many of us approached some of the many police officers and thanked them for their work, their courage, their dedication.
I saw the growing piles of flowers, and witnessed others adding their tributes.
I felt very emotional, remembering that my son had passed through that very area just 10 minutes before the attack. How easily we could have been one of the grieving families. How easily we still could be.
Life can change in a split second.
We carry on, we live our lives. We can choose to ensure that events like this bring us closer together, not pull as apart. We have more in common than divides us, for sure.
I’m proud to say I’m a Londoner through and through, even though it’s years since I lived there.
I bloody love London.
Memorial to the firefighters who died in WW2 (near the N end of the Millennium Bridge)
Choose hope not hate.
London is a great city full of great people. I’m so glad your son is alive and unharmed; I am heartbroken for those who aren’t. As you say, it could happen any time, anywhere. Life changes in a split second. Keep safe x
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Thank you Sam
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I have such respect and admiration for the strength you Londoners show in these times. (And indeed not just for Londoners, but for the citizens of all cities where such events have taken place.)
I admit that whenever near misses have happened, I end up being quite haunted by them. Life from then on in gets viewed through a lens that seems to be made up of equal parts relieved-gratitude and heart-stopping fear, and while my behaviour doesn’t necessarily change (I try to go about things as usual), I confess I do struggle mentally under the painful hyper-awareness that “life can change in a split second”.
Sending you a hug, Deborah.
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Do you know, funnily enough as a result of last week I feel much less scared and worried about such things than ever before. Not to say that I don’t worry about it, of course I do. But I’ve learned to just put that to one side. And as my son pointed out, the population of London is well over 8 million. The chance of being one of a tiny group of people directly involved in such an attack is miniscule. Which is not to accept or condone it, but simply put it in perspective and its proper place.
Thanks for the virtual hug – always appreciated!
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Well said.
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Thanks!
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So glad your son was safe-really brings it home to you when something like that happens. Feel that this is such a challenging time at the moment (and we thought last year was rubbish!), but what Manchester, the London attacks and now the unspeakable tragedy of Grenfell Tower, shows us is the strength of community that exists in these places x
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Meant to reply and somehow didn’t – thanks for the thought. And yes, things don’t seem to get better do they. I hope (wish) Grenfell might prove to be a turning point – it should, but not with the current government.
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