Hillsborough 29 Years on - Lost in a Void

My “memories” brought to the fore on Facebook at this time of year are filled with Hillsborough as you may expect. I have been on Facebook for 10 years now but my Hillsborough memories are stretching back an unbelievable 29 years.  That, as it happens, is half of my lifetime as I’m 58 in a week or so. 

Many of these memories are like nightmares that repeat randomly, vividly and sometimes unexpectedly. 

Since the verdicts of the new inquests and the impending trials I feel like I’m in some sort of void, a vacuum. With the 29th Anniversary of the disaster just a day away I really can’t say how I’ll feel tomorrow. 

The exploits of Liverpool FC have provided a welcome distraction this week but my memories of that day have been there in the background dipping in and out of my consciousness. 

On Sunday I plan to visit Hillsborough Oaks and then move onto the Memorial in Old Haymarket, St John’s Gardens.  I will remember those lost that day and will also be thinking of fellow survivors who like me find this time of year so difficult. 

I’m very grateful for the friendships that have developed over the years and for the support that has come with those friendships.  Together we have fought a long battle with some notable successes but ultimately there are no winners here, history dictates that. 

29 Years. Never Forgotten. Justice for the 96. Justice for all. 

Those Two Weeks. A Review. Sort of!

Those two weeks were something that hadn’t crossed my mind. Those two weeks were before this chapter began. I can remember significant things from before those two weeks; weddings, births, deaths, holidays, jobs and going to see Liverpool in the 60s getting into the Anny Road end at “three quarter time” with my dad watching Hunt, St John, Yeats and Peter Thompson flying down wing. Stuff like that.

Sir Roger Hunt

Ron "The Colossus" Yeats

But the Saturday that ended those two weeks tore up the script and a new direction was taken. It was darker, moody, but fine on the outside. Mostly.

I went to the Unity Theatre on Thursday evening with my grandson Tom. I’d promised him a pizza in Ma Egerton’s and we took the opportunity to go to watch what turned out to be a wonderful production by Ian Salmon called “Those Two Weeks”.

Pizza Time in Ma's

It was a play based in a 1980s house, set just in the living room, about a family, the Miller’s living a normal life. Normal in the sense of how relationships pan out each and everyday, what can go wrong, how brothers and sisters live together as they’re growing through their formative years; how mum and dad just carry on whilst in the background there are things like a ticking time bomb that occasionally raise their head and an argument explodes. Stuff happens then you get over it and move on. It was a house in Liverpool so there was going to be a Red & Blue element to it and of course there’d be salad! Sunday evening in our house mostly.

Those Two Weeks

I found the play riveting. I had warned Tom, my grandson, that I may get emotional - I did. I laughed, I was in awe of some excellent performances, I cried. He’s 16 and he he held my hand, he hugged me, he was there for me like my family and friends have been for the last 29 years.

The play made me think, I’m still thinking and that’s why I’m writing this. It’s my way of dealing with my thoughts and it’s good that I can do this. It’s therapeutic.

I’ve tried to recall what I did in those two weeks. I can’t. But I probably watched it here on Thursday. I had my ticket so no worries there. I must have sorted the transport out with John, the manager of Tommy Hall's in Prescot. I’ll have gone to the match, had pint on the way home from the training I was doing at the time. I’d have been at home and played records, vinyl of course. I probably made some compilations on C90 tapes bought from Woolies. We’d have had salad for tea on the Sunday. I’d have decided what I would be wearing to go to the semi final. I’d have been buzzing.

I wore one of these!

Those Two Weeks has finished its short run at the Unity Theatre. I hope it is back soon because more people need the experience. It totally blew me away.