When a news story gets personal

A school friend and her son and brother were murdered by her ex husband .I got a phone call from a newspaper to ask if we had taken her wedding photographs and when they told me the names I had to sit down.Shocked beyond belief,her ex husband is still in a hgh security mental facility/prison.The murders were over 35 years ago and sometimes when I think of her I still shed a tear for the lovely happy friendly girl she was,for her quiet studious brother and her beautiful child

The Dunblane School shooting. When I heard the news my first thought was absolute horror, with a sigh of relief that I would not know anyone involved. This turned out not to be true. Once the news spread and names were released, I realised that I, and most people for miles around did in fact know, if not the victims, then their Parents, Grandparents, Aunties, Cousins or someone in the Emergency services, Local Undertakers, etc., who was caught up in the aftermath. My DH was shocked to realise that he did in fact know the killer via the Scouts and through having been a customer in his shop.

A tragedy like that creates sorrow that affects a whole community at once and can never be forgotten. When we hear news of yet another School shooting in the US, it brings it all back afresh as if it was yesterday.

"The Troubles" in Ireland, because it went on for so long
and still not finished.

Probably the Herald of Free Enterprise ferry disaster. We had just returned from a holiday in France and my first (and only) experience of a ferry crossing. As I was terrified of being sea-sick I had drugged myself up and slept the entire journey on one of the full length recliners. When the ferry sank it brought home to me how dreadful that must have been - we were a party of 8 including 4 children - there would have been no way we would have all survived. I was and still am terrified of the sea.

More recently the Manchester Arena attack - I've been there so many times both with friends and on my own.

I was at work one evening and came across a copy of the evening papers and saw a photo of an ex school sweetheart on the front page and so I went to have a closer look and find out why he was in the news , he had hung himself and his two young babies from the loft to spite his wife who had asked for a divorce. I fainted as I was friends of his wife and the children.

one day, out of the blue,my mother called me to say that she had just seen the papers, and a woman who had driven her car over Beachy Head was a girl from my class at school who I had been friendly with.
It wasn’t a shock I suppose in one way, she had shown signs of bad depression and poor self esteem even as a child. Her mother constantly compared her negatively to her younger brother, who was a junior tennis champion, head boy bla bla and they thought it would toughen her up? clearly they were wrong. I regretted then that I not stayed in touch and a little bit guilty ?

Twice. Back in October 1971 a BEA airoplane crashed in Belgium. It was a Saturday and I was in hospital that day having my first child induced. By Sunday labour had started, then the newspapers came in and I read that one of the crew members was one of our neighbours. He and his wife had already experienced a cot death and she had recently suffered a miscarriage and I grieved for her.

The shock brought my labour to an abrupt stop and later that day I had to be transferred from the local maternity unit to a big hospital maternity unit for further induction and DS wasn't born until early on Tuesday morning.

The second time was The Herald of Free Enterprise. I worked for a very big company at its HQ and the accounts department had been reorganised and a new accountant had been appointed to handle my department's accounts. I met and spoke to him once as a fornight later he and his girlfriend both died in this tragedy. Several of my staff who already knew him were deeply affected.

There were fires raging in Illawarra, NSW, and my DD and her DH were down from Sydney to you help her In laws to protect their home.
We were just watching the news and a young couple with a new baby were interviewed on the beach. It was my DDs SIL and DH.
I have always wondered why AJ ( DD’s BiL) was on the beach and my Dd was on the roof of the bungalow with a hose pipe.?
We got the see the baby though about a year before we otherwise would.
The house survived.

A few years back I switched on the news and they were covering people kidnapped in Yemen where a friend from work had been looking forward to a different sort of holiday. I was absolutely appalled to see this friend's face on the screen. It was such a shock that I just burst into tears. They had killed her.
She was very popular and good at her job. There was a massive turn out for her memorial service. I'm still so sad at the thought of her loss and how terrified she must have been but I bet she'd have being doing her best to support the other unfortunate victims.

Paddyann it's very telling that the tactics of the press were no different 35 years ago than they are now. The intrusion is just horrid, especially in times of shock and grief.

After a family tragedy I almost repeat almost felt sorry for a news reporter who had obviously been sent to the house to get the family story. Needless to say he had the door slammed in his face. The phone was rapidly hung up on TV callers too. I suppose they're only doing their job but even so!
The man at the door looked abjectly apologetic I must say.

Baby P's uncle is a friend of ours.
He had no involvment at all but it was an upseting time for all.

The Wonderful Man is genuinely very difficult to wind up, but he has come very close to losing it with intrusive reporters. My local press are discreet and sensitive, but the national press are, on the whole, disgracefully behaved.