Iedereen die wel eens in de Londense metro is geweest herkent onmiddellijk de zin: “Mind the gap”. Je hebt er waarschijnlijk nog nooit bij stilgestaan maar deze zin is daadwerkelijk ingesproken door een persoon. En daar blijkt dus een bijzonder ontroerend verhaal achter schuil te gaan.
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1. Embankment is een metrostation in het centrum van Londen.
2. Op dit station hoor je altijd een man zeggen:’Mind The Gap’ als de metrodeuren openen.
Just before Christmas 2012, staff at Embankment Tube station were approached by a woman who was very upset.
She kept asking them where the voice had gone. They weren’t sure what she meant.
The Voice?
The voice, she said. The man who says ‘Mind the Gap’
— John Bull (@garius) December 11, 2019
3. De stem is dus veranderd en dat is voor deze vrouw behoorlijk heftig.
Don’t worry, the staff at Embankment said. The announcement still happens, but they’ve all been updated. New digital system. New voices. More variety.
The staff asked her if she was okay.
“That voice,” she explained, “was my husband.”
— John Bull (@garius) December 11, 2019
4. De man was ooit acteur en heeft alle Northern Line omroep-berichten in mogen spreken.
The woman, a GP called Dr Margaret McCollum, explained that her husband was an actor called Oswald Laurence. Oswald had never become famous, but he HAD been the chap who had recorded all the Northern Line announcements back in the seventies.
And Oswald had died in 2007.
— John Bull (@garius) December 11, 2019
5. Zijn vrouw gaat dus regelmatig naar het desbetreffende metrostation om zijn stem nog even te horen.
Oswald’s death had left a hole in Margaret’s heart. But one thing had helped. Every day, on her way to work, she got to hear his voice.
Sometimes, when it hurt too much, she explained, she’d just sit on the platform at Embankment and listen to the announcements for a bit longer.
— John Bull (@garius) December 11, 2019
6. En ze haalt hier steun uit.
For five years, this had become her routine. She knew he wasn’t really there but his voice – the memory of him – was.
To everyone else, it had just been another announcement. To HER it had been the ghost of the man she still loved.
And now even that had gone.
— John Bull (@garius) December 11, 2019
7. Het personeel besluit de archieven in de duiken om de opname te vinden.
The staff at Embankment were apologetic, but the whole Underground had this new digital system, it just had to be done. They promised, though, that if the old recordings existed, they’d try and find a copy for her.
Margaret knew this was unlikely, but thanked them anyway.
— John Bull (@garius) December 11, 2019
8. En dan ineens is de stem er weer.
In the New Year, Margaret McCollum sat on Embankment Station, on her way to work.
And over the speakers she heard a familiar voice. The voice of a man she had loved so much, and never thought she’d hear again.
“Mind the Gap” Said Oswald Laurence.
— John Bull (@garius) December 11, 2019
9. Want de metro-organisatie realiseerde zich ook dat ze voor Margaret een enorme steun kunnen zijn.
Because it turned out a LOT of people at Embankment, within London Underground, within @TfL and beyond had lost loved ones and wished they could hear them again.
And they’d all realised that with luck, just this once, for one person, they might be able to make that happen.
— John Bull (@garius) December 11, 2019
10. Ze hebben er alles aan gedaan om Oswald die bekende woorden weer uit te laten spreken.
Archives were searched, old tapes found and restored. More people had worked to digitize them. Others had waded through the code of the announcement system to alter it while still more had sorted out the paperwork and got exemptions.
And together they made Oswald talk again.
— John Bull (@garius) December 11, 2019
11. En tot op de dag van vandaag is bij dat ene station in Londen nog steeds de stem van Oswald te horen.
And that is why today, even in 2019, if you go down to Embankment station in London, and sit on the northbound platform on Northern Line, you will here a COMPLETELY different voice say Mind the Gap to ANYWHERE else on the Underground.
It’s Oswald.
Merry Christmas everyone.
— John Bull (@garius) December 11, 2019
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