7/7 Memorial - personal and impersonal

The week after its unveiling I have visited the memorial erected in Hyde Park to those who died in the 7/7 bombings. Tall steel posts, each representing an individual, painted silver and embossed with the location of their death bear no name.
The press have made something of the individuality of the posts, each being made of sand molded steel and therefore slightly different from each other.
Individuals are named on a plaque at the end of the installation – personal, yet anonymous to me. However, I visit with a colleague who knows the names of those she nursed as they died.
Two notes attached to flowers attract my attention. One is clearly from the partner of one of the victims. The other admits that ‘I did not know any of you’, yet feels the hurt and the significance of each death.
To stroll around the installation is strangely impersonal and personal at the same time. It is a bright sunny afternoon and though this is a memorial to tragic deaths there is a sense of the light and brightness that each individual brought to others.

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