13 May 2022

Bench

 My mission to find Ebenezer Elliott's stone took me past this seemingly unremarkable bench high above The Rivelin Valley. Except - it wasn't unremarkable at all.

It is a memorial bench, sited here in memory of Sheffield man Nigel Bruce Thompson. He was thirty three years old when he died.

He was cruelly murdered by Islamic terrorists on the morning of September 11th, 2001. He worked for finance brokers Cantor Fitzgerald in New York City. This company occupied four floors of  The World Trade Center's North Tower. It lost 658 of its employees that fateful morning.

9/11 was not just an attack  on America. It was an attack on civilisation itself. The pain of what  happened rippled around the world, touching the lives of so many including the Thompson family in Sheffield.

And what did those cowardly attacks achieve? What did the wicked terrorists hope they  might achieve? Looking back, it all seems even more pointless than it did at the time. Nigel Bruce Thompson would have been 54 years old this year.

Nigel was a graduate of York University here in Yorkshire

22 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:55 am

    So sad, and what did the attack and so many deaths achieve? Just fear and more hatred in the world. I don't think Allah would be pleased.

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    Replies
    1. If he existed he would be ashamed of the evil perpetrated in his holy name.

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  2. Nice way to tell us about Nigel. We tend to forget about the individuals who lost their lives in that disaster.

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  3. More deaths, more bloodshed, more ophaned children. The human race has a lot to answer for.

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    Replies
    1. We should be together my friends.
      We can be together. - Jefferson Airplane

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  4. The daughter of a man who was a few years behind me in school also perished in that atrocity.

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    Replies
    1. So many connections Mr C. So many tears. So many mouths forming the word, "Why?"

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    2. A bench is a wonderful way to remember someone.

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    3. What more can you do?

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  5. I still remember hearing about that on the TV and crying all that day. The WHY? still stands, unanswered.

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    Replies
    1. And the wicked terrorists threw away their own lives too. That also did not make sense. You only get one life and you should cherish it as best you can.

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  6. The bench looks a little neglected but it might be that so many people have sat there to reflect on the untimely passing of a young man, and to contemplate man's pointless inhumanity to his fellow man.

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    Replies
    1. Twenty years after the bench was installed in that exposed place it definitely needs another coat of varnish.

      Delete
  7. His shy, sideways smile... he was someone's little boy. When 9/11 occurred, I was sitting at home sipping tea, happy to have begun my maternity leave. I was only days away from giving birth to my own baby boy. It was a horrific day.

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    Replies
    1. May we assume that your baby boy will be 21 years old in September Melinda? I hope you still love him as much now as you did when he arrived in 2001.

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  8. We have a memorial in our city to Navy Cmdr. Dan Shanower who died at the Pentagon during those attacks. The memorial's sculpture combines a steel beam from the World Trade Center, granite from Pennsylvania where Flight 93 crashed, and rubble from the damaged part of the pentagon. There is an eternal flame and face sculptures done by local children. It is a moving memorial on the river in our downtown. He was only 40 when he died.

    ReplyDelete
  9. In his life, Dan said, "Freedom isn't free". So very true. I just googled an image of his memorial in Naperville.

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  10. Indeed, many people from all over the world died in those attacks. This guy would have been almost exactly my age. So pointless.

    I've blogged before about a neighbor of mine who died in the attacks. He was 26 at the time, and would be 47 this year. Hard to believe it was so long ago.

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    Replies
    1. It seems like yesterday. I think we can all remember exactly where we were when we heard the terrible news.

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  11. That horrible attack changed many things and still reflects on our lives today, even if we personally have not lost a loved one in it.
    A bench in a spot where someone loved to be is a beautiful way to remember them.

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    Replies
    1. Like old gravestones, it seems we cannot maintain such benches forever.

      Delete

Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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