Manchester: 100 days after the attack

It's easy to forget just how many people are affected by things like this.

22 people killed.but it isn't just 22 is it. It is 22 people who's families have had their lives changed forever, 22 mums, dad's, brothers, sisters, grandparents, sons, daughters, cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews. School friends. For those 22 people the list of people affected is in the hundreds at LEAST.

And it's ok just remembering those who died but then there are the dozens with serious injuries. One man in the program was paralysed, one girl only came out of hospital today more than 3 months after the bomb. At least one lost a leg. The list of injuries goes on and on and each of them will live with those injuries for the rest of their life. Their families and friends will live with the affects for life too.

Then you get those who may have escaped injury but simply by being there they are scared for life and will live with these memories. Their partners will live with the affects of those memories as there is no doubt it will alter their personalities even slightly. The families who will be we forget their panic that night when they heard of the attack and feared for their families lives.

The paramedics, police and doctors who were involved. The memories will be etched forever.

The headlines may read '22 dead' but the number affected are in the thousands.

I remember a few days after the attack when a list of missing people was released I went on twitter looking for any information. I'm not really sure why, I guess I'm just nosey. The list was around 20 people long and Twitter gave information such as 'missing Sarah aged 17. She was last seen in the arena and was wearing jeans and a red top' (completely made that up). I could tell by the wording of the other tweets from family members how worried they were but at first I figured 'well there are only 22 dead people so it can't be these people or they'd have identified them as the dead by now'. The next day I went back on Twitter and checked the same list of accounts. Now the 20 messages of 'missing xxx' had changed to around 15 missing and 5 messages of 'my little angel has been confirmed as dead today'. I had no connection to these people at all but because I'd read messages directly from their families it hit me a bit more. These weren't just names or even just faces in news reports. They were real people and I'd seen the pain of their family members.

One in particular really got to me. I was on Twitter for I think the third time and I was reading the 'we still have no word on our xxx who hasn't been seen since the attack' and while I was reading one particular family members Twitter feed the page updated in front of my eyes and the words were there 'we have just had the awful news. Xxx has been found and it isn't good news'. To know that this is somebody who has had their life ripped apart and they are sat at the there end of a computer literally typing that message out as I read it was awful. something I never expected and something which actually affected me more than I realised it would considering I actually had no idea who this person was.

Not really sure of the point of this post except to say that there are so so many people affected by these things that are easy to forget about and that it's worth remembering just how lucky we are that things like this have never directly affected us and hopefully never will.

 

Brilliant post, old mate. Well said.

 

Excellent post, mate.

Me and ar lass have just said the same. We had no idea how many people actually got injured, the young guy who's now paralysed is a massive inspiration to us all. His drive, enthusiasm and his will power to just brush himself down and get back on with life is amazing! Best of luck to him trying to beat the record.

It was a heartbreaking watch, but a real eye opener to how lucky we all are.

 

My sister was in the Arena that night. Truly horrendous experience.

 

My daughter was, and has been to several concerts since and is also going to the re-opening gig at the Arena, next month because she will not allow this scum to change the way she lives her life.
But, obviously, from seeing that programme tonight, lives have been changed dramatically for many.
I chose not to post in the 'religion should be banned' thread because my views are my own, but this religious nut job targeted teenage girls, in the main, innocent teenage girls, in no civilised world is that anything other than pure evil.

 

Have to say I was the same.

One stood out for me. One family I ended up following almost hourly. Then a mate of hers suddenly became a spokesperson. I still follow her on Twitter today. She didn't want to do it but knew that hundreds were following and she were the only place we would know.

It's awful. It really was. I was gutted when the family had some news that they thought she had been transferred to another hospital. It was a false alarm. And then a few hours later the news broke. I was gutted some more.

It's strange how you get attached to one story but then it takes over.

But that's a great post that and one I can relate to. And I suspect many more can too