Aberfan

In October 1966, when pregnant and carrying me, my mother who had done her nursing training in Cardiff and the Valleys in the early part of that decade, was driven to Tredegar from Surrey by my father, a journalist, to visit one of her old colleagues. Whilst they were there, the Aberfan disaster happened, killing 144 people, 116 of them being children in the primary school. The cousin of my mother’s friend was a teacher in the school, and one of those killed. My father was one of the first non local journalists on the scene. Last week, on a dark and drizzly day, I took them to the cemetery for the first time. An incredibly moving experience