Saturday is 15 April and so for Louise Brookes it will be a time for poignant reflection. She will visit her local cemetery in Bromsgrove before returning home to light a candle and raise a glass, all in memory of her brother Andrew, one of the 97 people who lost their life as a consequence of the Hillsborough disaster exactly 34 years ago.
The anniversary has been this way for Brookes since Anfield stopped hosting an annual memorial service for those who never made it back from Liverpool’s 1989 FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest and she prefers it as such given it means mourning in a quieter, more intimate way a loved one lost far too soon. As Brookes says: “People should be able to remember those who died however they want. And it’s nice to remember them as individuals, because that’s what they were – individual people.”
