The Laundry Ladies of Lockerbie
Elma Pringle and Moira Shearer appearing in the Sky documentary ‘Lockerbie’.
During times of struggle this past year, I’ve been thinking a lot about the ‘Laundry Ladies’ of Lockerbie and their selfless actions.
I watched the outstanding documentary series 'Lockerbie'. I was gripped by the victim's family's search for truth as the shadows of nation-states obscured their path.
The series begins by documenting the enormous tragedy of the Pan Am Flight 103 crash landing over the sleepy town of Lockerbie in 1988. We meet the victim's families and the Lockerbie residents, all with a heart-breaking tale to tell of that evening.
But when the hunt for justice begins, we are taken far from Scotland to the global forces controlling our lives. Finding the truth fades into the background, becoming a sideshow. The crash and the lives lost become merely collateral as state politicians try to push their agenda.
The grimness of this aspect of the disaster was biting when Moira Shearer and Emily Pringle appeared on screen. Two residents of Lockerbie were part of a volunteer group that took it upon themselves to clean the victims' clothes and repair other belongings before returning them to the families. It restored dignity to those lost, a loving gesture in the darkest of times for the families.
Even though it broke their hearts, crying as they came home each evening, they would get up the next day and wash and iron the clothes of children who would never see their parents again.
The story of these women rising out of bed each morning to struggle through acts of kindness for strangers in the face of overwhelming horror - I've been clinging onto it this past year. I've cherished it like a flickering flame in a gale as the world seems to be ripping apart.
Get up. Take part.
