Monday 6th July 2020 – Remembering in lockdown a Thursday in 2005
Tomorrow will be the 15th anniversary of the 7/7 London Bombings when three tubes (at 8.50am) and a diverted bus (at 9.47am) were targeted by suicide bombers. I was one of those caught up on his way to work, lucky to survive in an Edgware Road carriage where seven had died.
When I got home from hospital mid-August, I thanked fellow tube travellers, the emergency services, the police, the NHS, friends and family, including my extraordinary wife Angela.
I always maintained I saw more love than hate that day.
Every year since then we have marked the day. Angela and I (with Matthew and Alice, if a weekend) take the tube to Edgware Road, joining others on the platform for 8.50am. We stand and remember the 52 victims and those who responded so bravely, from fellow travellers to paramedics. And we pay our respects at St. Mary’s Hospital.
Some years have been marked by official events such as the unveiling of the Memorial in Hyde Park and a service at St. Paul’s marking the 10th anniversary.
However, a group of us survivors also get together for a Greek dinner with physiotherapists, prosthetists, police and others who helped us that day and have become part of our lives. Last year there were four of us who got together (with four legs between us) and our long-suffering wonderful wives. We were planning a bigger commemoration this time but, like much these days, it will have to be postponed.
I’ve only missed two of these reunion dinners, including the very first, which coincided with a performance of The Hampstead Players’ Julius Caesar production (which had been due to be staged a week after 7/7) – and turned out to be a very memorable night at Hampstead Parish Church with a couple of my saviours in the audience.
Angela and I intend to drive early tomorrow to Edgware Road, and there are also some events online.
I always remember and, in the depths of other crises and tragedies, I cling to the hope that there will be more love than hate.
