I had a phone call yesterday evening from our Rector. There is to be a memorial service in our church at 3pm GMT on Sunday afternoon with the Bishops of Selby and Doncaster in attendance, along with probable bereaved relatives and others involved. And, of course, the media circus. Cyril has chosen our church rather than the larger Snaith Priory as it was in fact built to serve Heck as well as us. The full name of our parish is Hensall-cum-Heck. Heck church was built about 105 years ago by the then vicar. It is delightful, but would be packed with 50 people in it. (We might get 200 in ours. Cyril says if they can't all get in it's tough). If any of you remember, please send your thoughts and prayers this way at that hour. I simply got a phone call which began, "Andrea: brace yourself!" I am now in a bit of a panic because the organ has been acting up, with stops misbehaving and I am going to have to try and do something about it today, which may not be possible. The actual service isn't worrying me as orders of service are to be prepared, and all I and my fellow churchwarden have to do is prepare everything, dragoon people into handing the service sheets out and make sure everyone has what they need. And, I suppose, do the ceremonial bit of escorting the clargy up and down the aisle. (If that bit does go out, and any of you catch it, I'm the taller of the two of us!)

I drove up through the other end of Heck yesterday on my way back from Doncaster. Apart from an outside broadcast wagon going out of the village it was very quiet. You could just see the top of a tall crane in the distance as it was starting to assemble the big heavy-lifter. I spoke to one of my Morris friends last night who is a patient-transfer ambulance driver and who was called down to Heck. (And luckily not needed eventually). He said that the first fire crew on the scene was from Snaith, and he saw them as they came off site. He said that they looked really affected by what they had seen and had to do. He also said that when you actually stand and look at the wreckage you are just blown away by the sheer scale of the damage and wonder how anyone got out alive at all from some of it. He stood and looked at the freight loco and said you just don't realise what a lucky escape the people in the houses had and how close it actually came to them. When you are at ground level the sheer size and height of the engine is brought home to you.

Andrea