19th February 2025

I am no great fan of Angela Rayner but I felt sorry for her when she went to meet Grenfell fire disaster victims. She was faced with two implacably opposed groups; one wants the empty (and unstable!) building to remain in perpetuity as a memorial and the other is equally sure it should be demolished and a memorial created near the site. One of the first group tells a reporter, “Some of my mother’s ashes are in there”. Another says “just looking at it each day is too much”. Emotions run high. Neither group feels the other is mourning as they should.

All of us mourn for loved ones and in many ways, sometimes unacceptable to others in the family. My father-in-law was reproached for not visiting his father’s grave regularly and compounded his perceived fault by saying that to remember his father he would rather go and watch Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge! That was where his happiest memories were to be found.

Of course, as Christians, we mourn for those we have lost and we try to draw comfort from our belief that they are now in God’s hand.

We all have to find our own way and mostly our chosen route will not interfere with that of others, even if they think our way is a bit odd. (See Queen Victoria for instance.) But Grenfell needed a decision and whatever was decided would cause distress.

It is to come down and a memorial is to be created on or near the site. Sadly, that is likely to cause more years of argument.

Margaret Clements