I'm watching the BBC coverage of the memorial service for the victims of the London bombings a year ago today. It’s particularly poignant for us in this area because the bombers came from Leeds.

I've just been in tears, listening to some tributes.

Didn’t want the day to pass without some recognition.

Dee

Dee,
I have been so emotionally affected by it all too. When it happened a year ago, I thought my husband was on the Piccadilly Line (he works at Russell Square) and was just frantic with worry. He got a lift I hadn't known about and was only able to call hours and hours later. It really got to me when it happened, and hearing all the stories and tributes has got to me again. Saw a friend today, another Londoner, who I mentioned this to and I think she thought I was being really OTT to be upset...guess we all handle things in different ways. But I'm really glad you posted this, anyway. Thanks. I also didn't want the day to pass without recognition and have also had a little cry.

Yes, it's a strange, sad day. The husband of one of my best friends works at the BMA, though he's not a doctor. She knew he was all right pretty quickly, but he stayed there all day, helping. We think of the dead and wounded and their families, of course, but the effects spread so much further than that.

Emma

Caroline, I remember you posting your relief when you heard your husband was safe. Others did too, and that made the whole thing so much more immediate for me. It makes the world so much smaller when we can chat on line with people all over the globe and – without having any personal connection with London – know people involved. It really makes you stop and think.

Emma, so true. The affects are widespread. I don’t know why, but I can't stop thinking about the hidden victims – the families of the perpetrators. We’ve had a lot of coverage by the local media over the past year because the bombers were from Leeds, and their families are just as much victims, just as grief-stricken, as the others. That’s not to diminish the grief of the victims and their relatives, just that these families have been on local TV, genuinely bewildered and horrified and, to add to that, bowed down by guilt. You hear or read of parents every day saying they had no idea their child was bullying other children at school/mugging old ladies/dealing drugs. Imagine how these families feel, given the incontrovertible evidence that one of their loved ones was capable of doing that. You have to pity them.

Dee

Dee,
I know what you mean. If this doesn't sound really callous, that awful mix some people have to deal with, of grief and shame for something a relative has done, has always fascinated me as a theme in fiction. Sorry, badly put, but hopefully you know what I mean!
And yes, you have to have to some pity of innocent family members.

<Added>

pity FOR!

Caroline, I know exactly what you mean, and I bet most members do too. It’s the writer in us; no matter what’s going on there’s a little – sometimes not so little - part of us storing away the details for future reference.

The last time this came up in a discussion my stalker re-joined the site and berated me for being callous and unfeeling! I’d better be careful in case she’s still lurking…

Dee

I'm dying to know who your stalker is!!!
You've brought up another subject that fascinates me now!

It started a long while ago, when both Nell and I were approaching the 10,000 points mark. There was a bit of joshing in the forums about which one of us would get there first, and it was all good fun. Then this woman joined and posted a piece of her writing. No one commented on it and she was pleading all over the place – putting messages on unrelated threads and what have you.

So I read it and gave her some feedback (it was awful, to be honest, but I was tactful and she was happy. She even WWmailed me to say how helpful the feedback had been.) A few others commented, mostly in the same vein, and then she took the piece off the site. Almost immediately she started attacking me at every opportunity, eventually becoming so offensive that she was kicked off the site.

Since then she’s re-joined several times to have a pop at me. Once I got over the initial shock it was quite amusing. I have no idea who she was or why she chose to target me, or when she might come out from behind her skirting boards again. I think she’s been permanently barred, but you can never be sure.

Better not mention her name…