Monday, April 14, 2008

April 15, 1989 - RIP 96

Tomorrow is Apr 15. It is the anniversary of Hillsborough disaster for us Liverpool fans. In 1989, 96 of our fans who went to watch our team play Notts Forest in the FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield never came home. They'd been crushed to death in Britain's worst-ever sporting disaster.
I won't go into detail here but if you like, you can find out for yourself what happened that day by going to the Hillsborough Justice Campaign site.

This BBC page has a video of what actually happened on that day. I can't believe the police just lined up across the field while people were shouting and pleading for help to be pulled out.

On my first trip to Anfield in Apr 2006, I finally had the chance to see the Hillsborough Memorial. It was just a week after the anniversary of the disaster and there were still many tributes from fans, our own and from other clubs, at the Memorial. What broke my heart was seeing tributes from family members to the 96 and to see more than a few share the same family name in the list of the dead. It was absolutely heart-breaking to see flowers and teddy bears bearing tributes from people who signed off as "Mum" or "Dad".
What made everything hit home was turning to look at my Liverpool-raised, Liverpool FC-mad husband (bf then) and thinking, "It could have been you at the stadium." All those names on the list - each and every one of them meant as much to someone as he meant to me.


For the 96 who never came home.... RIP and YNWA.


(Photo taken Apr 24, 2006 at Hillsborough Memorial, Anfield)

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