Try GOLD - Free
We don't get to choose our memories. For me, it's the horror that will remain
The Observer
|June 01, 2025
It was meant to be a day of joy for Liverpool. Instead, the awful minutes I lost touch with myfather-in-law and son will haunt me for ever

There are moments from that weekend that I want to become memories. The sight of my seven-year-old son, Ed, hearing the first strains of You'll Never Walk Alone rising up from the vast crowd on the Strand, instinctively lifting his scarf above his head, and picking up the lyrics. My father-in-law's voice cracking just a little as he told me how much it meant to watch Liverpool lift a league title with his grandson.
I want to remember the way Ed could not keep still as he waited for the bus carrying the players to arrive, that he had to keep checking he had not missed them. I want to remember the smoke from the flares blotting out the sky, and the bus carrying the Liverpool team emerging from the mist, and the smile on my son's face.
I want to associate that weekend, more than anything, with the feeling I had once they had gone past and the sea of people on the Strand started to break. I had, I told my father-in-law, done my best. My son was at Anfield to see Liverpool win the league. He was there again to watch them lift the trophy. He had seen the parade. If he doesn't turn out to be a fan, it is not through my lack of effort.
But I know, too, that we do not get to choose our memories. I wouldn't claim to have suffered genuine trauma from what happened on Water Street last Monday. To do so would be self-centred, self-indulgent, profoundly disrespectful: to those who were hurt, to those who must have feared for their lives, for all of those who must now try to find a way to come to terms with what they experienced.
This story is from the June 01, 2025 edition of The Observer.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM The Observer
The Observer
A buzz, silence, a blue light… then utter devastation. The lethal Russian drones wreaking havoc in Ukraine
Citizens fall asleep every night to the constant hum of killing machines that turn buildings to dust and snuff out lives.
5 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
Musical chairs: Keir Starmer ushers in a new cabinet of trusted 'fixers and doers'
The prime minister's reshuffle signals a clear determination to tackle issues such as immigration and welfare by putting the ministers he considers most effective in charge, writes Rachel Sylvester
4 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
She listened to Grenfell's bereaved and then acted. Rayner had pure class — our class Kimia Zabihyan
Unlike her predecessors as housing minister, she confronted the issue of dismantling the tower and demolition has now started
5 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
Back to petroleum
In 2020, BP told the world that it cared about climate change. Today, it is doubling down on oil and gas. This is the story of how financial markets gave up on net zero and how an aggressive US hedge fund helped pressure Britain's best-known energy company to abandon its green ambitions
11 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
Vespillo burying beetle
Some say that powerful scents bring back the past. Not me. In that single moment of gorgeous olfaction I smelled a glorious future. All the hope in the world was revealed by the scent that wafted towards me on the gentlest breeze. There was a corpse out there, a good mile off, and I knew at once that it would bring me all the joy and happiness a beetle is capable of.
2 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
The six warning signs as crypto is welcomed into the US mainstream
In a single week, the Trump family have increased their on-paper wealth by more than $6.5bn after Eric and Don Jr's crypto company American Bitcoin debuted on the Nasdaq and the family's stablecoin venture, World Liberty Financial, started selling tokens. As their enrichment continues, Richard Lambert examines the history of market hysteria and why crypto's rise under this president has all the alarm bells ringing
10 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
Zack Polanski
Last week, Zack Polanski, a 42-year-old gay Jewish vegan, became leader of the Green party with a promise to turn it into a leftwing version of Reform UK.
6 mins
September 07, 2025

The Observer
In a show of power, China's strange bedfellows signal a new world order
After two striking images in China, Rana Mitter asks whether we've just witnessed the start of the Asian century
5 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
CEOs face same censure as stars over crimes and misdemeanours
Not so long ago, America’s puritanical attitude to CEO naughtiness was regarded on this side of the Atlantic as an oddity.
1 mins
September 07, 2025
The Observer
Keironomics marks start of Whitehall reshaping of state
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was the still point of the turning world in cabinet but, around her, economic and social policy is shifting.
2 mins
September 07, 2025
Listen
Translate
Change font size