David, a survivor of the Aberfan disaster, on his father's farm, staring up at the coal tips

Description

His name was David. His father was Llew the Milk. They lived on a dairy farm a half mile out of Aberfan on the road to Merthyr on the side of the village closest to the schoolhouse. Llew Milk raced there when he heard the terrible news and began digging with the miners and road workers and other volunteers. And as each child's tiny corpse was found they were handed, man to man to woman to man, in a morbid chain of grief. Llew Milk suddenly found himself holding the lifeless body of his own son in his arms. He broke from the line carrying his boy to the road where the bodies were lined up when a nurse grabbed him, and said those unforgettable words: "This boy's alive."