Thread by @GlennBBC

Amazed the power a 1988 bombing has to bring people together thirty years on. Thread. 1/25

The story behind this picture is quite something. But let me fill in some of the background first. 2/25

The destruction of Pan AM flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland killed 270 people. 3/25

The bombing shattered countless lives. 4/25

It has also forged unbreakable bonds of love and friendship between those most deeply affected by it. 5/25

New bonds were formed this week as
victims’ relatives gathered @SyracuseU New York for the annual remembrance events. 6/25

The university lost 35 students in the bombing. 7/25

Roses are laid in honour of each one by students with scholarships in their memory. 8/25

Ken Bisset is being remembered this year by Jezrel Sabaduquia. 9/25

Here’s Jezrel sharing a hug with Ken’s mum - Carol King Eckersley. 10/25

Carol came to #RemembranceWeek for the first time in 2013. 11/25

Incredibly, she had only just learned her son was on the plane. How could she not have known? 12/25

In 1967, as an unmarried mum, Carol gave her son for adoption to avoid the social stigma of single parenthood. 13/25

She decided not to interfere in baby Ken’s life but secretly hoped he’d come looking for her. He never did. 14/25

Eventually, Carol could not bear to wait any longer and decided to search for him. 15/25

She soon found him on a Lockerbie memorial website. He had died two days after his 21st birthday. 16/25

Those who knew Ken, like his school friend, Mike have been helping Carol piece together her son’s life. 17/25

He told her about Ken’s love of music and the Bruce Springsteen concert they attended together. 18/25

In Lockerbie, a police officer called out on the night of the bombing - Colin Dorrance - showed Carol where her son’s body fell. 19/25

Incidentally, Colin (second left) led a group of five cyclists from Lockerbie to this year’s Syracuse commemoration. Carol considers him her “Scottish son” but I digress. 20/25

Back to her actual son, Ken. Carol recently posted a picture of him on social media and received a surprising response. 21/25

Kim Cirillo Wickham got in touch to say she had taken the picture. 22/25

She was one of Ken’s flat mates in London in 1988 and has now become a friend of his birth mother. 23/25

Kim’s told Carol lots of stories about Ken’s student days - that he smoked, enjoyed drinking port and once lost all his luggage on a trip to Moscow. 24/25

Carol and Kim met for the very first time at Syracuse. New friendship from an enduring tragedy. 25/25

There’s more including an interview with Carol here: bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-sc… @SyracuseU @BBCScotlandNews @dailyorange @CBSNews @syracusedotcom 26/25

This thread features Carol King Eckerskey from Portland @Oregonian @SUAlums @HeavyWhalley @jsabaduq @FirePlayin singer Kim Cirillo Wickham @CycletoSyracuse 27/25