stairwell

In early September 2001 Alan and I accepted the keys to an apartment in a tower block in central Glasgow. We had despaired of our old place and needed a change. We employed a decorator firm to spruce the place up and prepared to move in at the end of the month.

Despite the events of 9/11 we still made that move. However the first few months I admit to being anxious a lot of the time. Would our block be attacked, how would we escape, what if we had made a mistake? There were many sleepless nights and many diversions to the pub after work in order to face going home. I remember reading the reports and seeing the documentaries made about those too brief moments between attack and collapse, something being in the stairwell still brings back to me years later.

Thankfully we settled at last and haven't regretted the move. But the world has also moved on and in some ways not to a brighter place. Must there always be dark corners in the stairwell?