WE WILL NEVER FORGET

For those who've read my profile you will realise that I live and work in Whitehaven. Words alone cannot express the shock, disbelief and sadness felt in the wake of the shootings that hit this community last week. Taxi driver Darren Rewcastle was a fellow supporter of Workington "Comets" speedway, Michael Pike was a fellow cyclist and two of the dead were regular customers at the shop I run. Even Derrick Bird himself was known to me, we had often talked of our shared passion for old motorbikes. In small communities like this we all know someone who has been affected.

I attended a memorial service for the dead and injured today, a moving event which ended with a 1 minute silence. During the silence a powerful gust of wind circled the churchyard and touched all 4000 in attendance.  I'd like to think it was the spirits of those killed on June 2nd finally finding their peace. At the end of the silence, the taxi drivers of Whitehaven paid their own respects by blowing their horns en masse for a further 60 seconds, a gesture which made my eyes well up with sadness. For another emotional response please take at look at this thought provoking post I discovered today at the Marmalade Cafe.

West Cumbria has suffered too much in the last six months and I would like to pay my own respects to all who have lost their lives or suffered injuries during the Cumbrian floods, the Keswick School bus crash and now the West Cumbria shootings.

RIP...
PC Bill Barker (Workington Floods)
Chloe Walker (Keswick Bus Crash)
Kieran Goulding (Keswick Bus Crash)

....& from the West Cumbria Shootings...
Darren Rewcastle
Jane Robinson
Michael Pike
Garry Purdham
Susan Hughes
Kenneth Fishburn
Jamie Clark
Kevin Commons
Jennifer Jackson
James Jackson
Isaac "Spike" Dixon
David Bird
...and to Derrick Bird too, may he find his own peace.

To those injured, affected and disturbed I wish a speedy recovery and a restoration to order, both physically and emotionally.

What has happened will never be forgotten but now is time to move on and I know that the spirit and strength of the fine people of West Cumbria will see us through.