Two posts ago I spoke of Auntie B who was born in 1900. She told me the sad story of how whilst working in the kitchens at a school she had badly damaged her knee so that she was taken off to hospital. At this time, in her twenties, she was engaged to Bill, but while in hospital she heard that he was "playing around" with another girl. Whether this was true or not she took umbrage and on next seeing Bill she threw her ring at him and that was that. One day when she was in her eighties a letter arrived. Incredibly it was from Bill. He told her that he had come from about thirty miles away where he lived, on a coach trip with a group of friends. They had called at the pub in her village and he had asked the locals if they knew of Auntie B. They did and said where she lived. She replied to his letter and went to stay in his home for three weeks. How amazing is that. Bill had married and had six children. I often wonder if she had been less hasty if she would have had children too. There was obviously some genuine love between them and what a compliment to Auntie B that Bill should have remembered her and wanted to spend time with her again.
I have written in previous posts about disasters. In the case of Concorde, decisions by people, plus other factors were directly to blame for the event. In the case of the Penlee disaster it may have been avoided if someone had made a better choice in the time beforehand and as a consequence brave men and the ship's crew and the captain and his family died. 9/11 was certainly the result of wicked men committing a terrorist act, but even in this there was heroism notably by another Cornish man, Rick Rescorla who helped many to safety and left it too late to help himself. In situations like this we see what the human spirit is capable of both good and evil. What of disasters that come on people because of the earth restless movement of tectonic plates. Often people live near volcanoes because the land is rich and fertile and they have the chance of a better life there when the volcano is resting. We cannot blame them for that but sometimes people become complacent...
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