Sometimes my writing fails me. Words on a page don’t seem good enough. Don’t seem strong enough. Don’t seem… enough. My heart is broken for all the parents who lost a child simply because they did what all kids want to do… went to a concert. They were out to celebrate life. Youth. Music. For some it might have been their first concert. For others it might have been a ticket they saved up for. And there were the mom’s and dad’s dropping them off, waiting to pick them up, or even dancing and singing by their side.
My heart breaks. So, words on page don’t seem enough.
This is for you….
Dear Susan
Very touching to see your blog. I was reviewing Twitter when the news broke. Sadly posts of this kind sink your heart as soon as you read them. The O2 post rocked my world. My daughter and granddaughter and her friend were there. For seconds my world stopped. I rang her, no response. I rang again and she answered her phone. At 10.33pm when the bomb went off, she was just 30 yards from the impact area because she had stopped to buy a poster for the girls, except she didn’t as the merchandiser didn’t take cards. She had taken two steps with those girls towards the foyer area when the bomb went off. She knows that those few seconds of stopping to buy a poster, which she didn’t buy! saved her and those two girls from a far more serious fate. What she described to me I don’t even want to type, but I am incredibly proud of my daughter for steering two ten year old girls to safety in what was total chaos. Those young girls witnessed sights that no ten year old should ever see. They broke from the masses and escaped through a side exit. My daughter jumped into a waiting taxi and said ‘I have only a few pounds in my purse, but take us as far away from here as possible, I need to get my car’. The taxi driver replied ‘the car park is just over there, two minutes’. She said ‘you don’t understand there are police everywhere’. He replied ‘there are always police at these events’. She then said ‘you don’t understand a bomb has gone off, everything is closed off’. The taxi driver said ‘Forget the money, get the children secured in the back, I will take you’. He charged my daughter’s phone for her, he took her through heavy traffic to her car and stayed watching from his car until she had left the car park. My heart will always be with the dead and injured and I wish comfort for the families who have lost their loved ones. To those who survived, I wish them comfort too and strength, strength to cope with both their physical injuries and even more strength to cope with the mental scars they must surely carry. My son who is a policeman was in the response team and I wish him strength too, for as he said ‘nothing could have prepared him for what he saw and had to deal with’. My pride for my children is immense and for my granddaughter and her friend who have been so brave and are still traumatised from the events of that night. To the cab driver who happened to be muslim, I thank you for the kindness extended to my family and I am so sorry that sensationalism in the media and extreme groups in this country have chosen racism to feed their souls, please be assured they are in the minority. We should follow the example of the mancunians – Manchester…choose love. Susan, thank you for your post, this has almost been like therapy for me! Finally, the 22 souls who perished, you will be mourned and remembered …always.
thank you so much for telling your story. yes, you should be incredibly proud of your daughter. i’m deeply moved by every detail you just shared with me. thank you. xoxoxo
Dear Susan,
Thank you for the beautiful yearning song and sentiment. I’ve got a daughter too, so like you, I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose her in one of these types of horrific events.
I sat across from you at Bamboo Thursday night at the Dreamago dinner. What a joy and pleasure to meet you. And thank you for sharing your inspiring story with all of us.
I wanted to share an essay with you. It’s about a theater director I worked with in New York in the 80s. As I recall, he spoke of your dad, and was a contemporary of his.
http://www.storysouth.com/2016/09/mr-theater.html
Also, the famous agent I told you about who your dad was quoted (jokingly) as saying was “God’s agent,” was Milton Goldman.
Here’s his obit…
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/05/obituaries/milton-goldman-vice-president-of-theatrical-agency-dies-at-75.html