Virtual Advent Tour - Lockerbie

I am delighted to take part in the Virtual Advent Tour hosted by Marg & Kelly. This is the third time of taking part. It is a wonderful way to meet other bloggers and spread festive cheer! When I decided to take part I selected two special dates - this is the second of those two dates.

The 21st December is my husband's birthday. He is the ultimate Christmas baby -  and loves the whole Christmas hype, foods, tree decorations and lots of sparkling, twinkling lights.

Sadly, there is also another dimension to the day. On my husband's 16th birthday in 1988 the Lockerbie Air Disaster happened. Pan Am flight 103 fell from the sky a victim of terrorist activity and landed in the Lockerbie area. The main fusilage fell in the parish of Tundergarth, a rural hamlet about 4 miles from Lockerbie whilst another part of the aircraft fell into a residential street in Lockerbie. 

My husband always remembers those events and the lives lost. Not just the 270 people, both passengers and crew on the plane, but the residents of Sherwood Crescent including a friend of my husband.

Lockerbie remembers the tragic event in such a tasteful and sombre way. There are various plaques and memorials in Lockerbie and Tundergarth.

1. A Series of plaques at the Church in Tundergarth Parish, Lockerbie
2. A Memorial at the location where some locals were killed - Sherwood Cresent, Lockerbie
3. The Memorial at Dryfesdale Cemetery, Lockerbie
4. Plaques at Dryfesdale Cemetery, Lockerbie
5. Tree Plaques at Dryfesdale Cemetery, Lockerbie
6. Headstones within Dryfesdale Cemetery, Lockerbie

Over the last 20 odd years I have visited the memorials fairly regularly and taken photographs. It was a truly tragic event and yet the locals of Lockerbie have embraced the situation with such a degree of decorum that is refreshing. 

The town will never forget the bond that exists between the border town and the United States. It will never forget the disaster, nor that in a split second or two the lives or so many were lost or changed beyond comprehensible thought. The population of Lockerbie tend the memorial and graves of all as if they are tending one of their own and that is what is so refreshing.That even in death strangers are welcome and remembered.

Dryfesdale Cemetery and Memorial Garden
Taken by Julie Goucher April 2006

You can view the range of photographs commemorating the disaster HERE at GraveEncounters