When Manchester falls silent, it manages to say what words cannot.
In a city that is fiercely energetic and perpetually alive, quiet like this is reserved only for the times that weigh heaviest on our hearts and minds. For Mancunians, May 22 will always be a day to remember the 22 people who tragically lost their lives when a bomb ripped through the Manchester Arena. It is a day for reflection, a day for grief, and a day for which silence will always be spoken for.
Crowds gathered at Manchester Victoria station and the Glade of Light memorial at noon to pay tribute to those 22 individuals who did not make it home on this day six years ago. Each person has a story - where they were that dreadful night, who they knew, what they saw - and in that minute of silence, Manchester listens.
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Survivors, family members, and strangers stepped forward to lay flowers, pictures, and touching tributes at the dedicated memorial to the arena bomb victims at Victoria station, just metres from where the deadly blast tore apart the lives of so many.
A hush descended upon the city at midday, and for sixty seconds, the busy station was held in a state of contemplative sorrow.
Railway chaplain Mike Roberts led a powerful prayer following the minutes silence, in which he encouraged mourners to work for 'a city built on hope and not on despair'.
"Six years on from that darkest of nights, we have paused, and remembered," he said. "We have stopped to reflect on the impact that moment had on each of us, and on our city.
"In our quietness we have remembered, and in the stillness we have wept and shed our tears. This day we ask, grant to those who did not go home that night peace and eternal rest.
"Give to those of us who continue to mourn comfort and the strength to live in a way that honours those who have died.
"For our city, for ourself, and for those who stand alongside us today, may we remember in our hearts and never forget the event that we remember this day, and those who were lost on that darkest of nights."
In the silence, there was stillness - and even for minutes after, nobody moved. Then slowly, the city stirred and the station filled with sounds.
For some, today is a day of deeply personal remembrance. For others, it is a reminder of the ways that Manchester became a city united in the days and months following the atrocity. In the agony of loss, Manchester came together - and six years later, it is still doing so.
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