An ONU professor and two of his students lived through a harrowing experience in Manchester, England, on May 22. Unfolding below them in their hotel rooms, about a mile away from the Adriana Grande concert, was a scene of mayhem: 22 dead and 119 injured in a bombing. Shane Tilton, Ph.D., assistant professor of multimedia journalism, gives the Ada Icon this account of that dreadful night:
Shane Tilton:
It's important to talk about Manchester before going any further. Manchester is one of my favorite places in the United Kingdom. It reminds me a lot of Chicago or Pittsburgh with their sense of community despite the massive size of the city. It has the wonderful vibe that combines its working class tradition with a modern view of the world.
It is the epicenter of media in the United Kingdom. All of the media outlets have studio space or offices in the Media City area of Manchester. Ohio Northern University had the privilege to send two students and me to the University of Salford for two weeks in May to work with and learn from the BBC, community radio stations and commercial radio stations in the area.
As for the night of the explosion, it seems best to describe in chronological order. I remember going to bed around 10 PM BST (5 PM EDT). I heard what I thought was my bags falling to the floor around 10:30 PM. Thirty minutes later, I heard at least 20 police cars outside my window.
High-speed chase
I thought there was a high-speed chase or something along those lines. Four police cars block the intersection outside of our hotel. Around midnight, the chair of my department texted me that she heard about the explosion at the arena. She wanted to make sure we were safe.
I texted her back, turned on the TV and got a hold of both of the students to ensure they were safe. After checking on the other group of students that were with us from Point Park, I started to record the scene outside of my window. I went downstairs for the first time about 12:45 AM. There were about four families in the lobby. It was obvious that they just came from the concert.
I tried to talk to a couple of the kids to make sure they were okay. The two girls I talked to couldn't have been more than 10 or 11. They were stunned and quiet. One of the girls in the lobby was crying the entire time. After making sure everybody had a guardian, I talked to the hotel staff. Normally, I would talk to the front desk every night that I came back from Salford. Over the past week, I enjoyed the conversation and humor of the talented staff of the Ainscow Inn. They would always be in a cheery mood.
That night was different.
They were keeping a calm expression as they had to deal with the horror that was coming from more than a mile away.
It was during this brief pause that I called my parents. I was hoping that nobody was watching the news before I had a chance to call. My grandmother was the only one that was watching, however, she thought that I was already out of Manchester. After making the phone calls, I decided it was time to go back to the room and send out the various emails to the Ada and ONU community, reinsuring that everybody from ONU was safe in Manchester.
Two thoughts
Two things struck me as I was trying to relax from the shock of the night. The first being that how cared for we were by the Ada and ONU communities. We received more than two dozen messages of support during our time in Manchester.
We were comforted by the thoughts of everybody back in Ada. The second element was the calm that was happening outside my window. The police cars were still blocking the intersection. However, there wasn't a sense of panic. As night gave its way to morning, the police cars were gone.
The calm remained.
Our plans for the rest of our time in Manchester went from a couple of cultural visits to a goodbye banquet in our honor on campus. Our hosts made our last day in Manchester feel like a celebration of our time in Manchester as opposed to a time to be scared.
Manchester was not reeling from the attack. It was coming together as a community. On the bus back from campus, I was impressed with the citizens of Manchester going about their business. This wasn't a sign of attack being the "new normal" of the United Kingdom, but rather a show of the unflappable nature of the British.
The students from ONU and Point Park went to the vigil after the banquet to show solidary with the rest of Manchester.
I went to the site of the memorial in the middle of Manchester during our last morning in the city. I left some flowers and a card. It wasn't much, but I felt that I should leave something.
It was there that I saw at least one hundred people gathered at the city center. There were some Muslims saying some prayers and setting flowers down. The community was coming together to memorialize those killed in the explosion.
Final thoughts
My last thought relates to a picture I posted the morning after the explosion. It was a picture of the sun setting behind the MediaCityUK Studios with the caption: "It was nice to see the beauty and the awe-inspiring nature of Manchester before we leave. It is morning in Manchester and nothing will change that."
