Neil Armstrong – A Personal Memory……

I was thirteen years old when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon.

Just like every young person and every adult, I was engrossed in the event.

I grew up with comic books. There were no computer games, and television was limited. As kids we played outside most of the time, and comics fuelled our imagination.

Children's programmes would be mainly puppet shows: Fireball XL5, Space Patrol, Supercar – but by thirteen I'd long grown out of them. By then I was into Marvel and DC comics.

I developed an interest in astronomy, and when I was eleven I got hold of a Tasco Refractor. This opened up a whole new world.

My telescope came with a map of the moon and stars, and for hours at night I would stand in the garden, pointing my telescope at the moon, identifying the craters and seas.

Of course I knew they weren't real seas, but they were named in Latin, so Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises) and Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility) were familiar names to me, and on a clear night could even be viewed with the naked eye, just as they can today by anyone familiar with the Moon map.

One evening I was escorting my mother home from her work, and I looked up at the sky and remarked "Isn't it amazing mam, there are two men up there on the moon!" For a brief moment we paused, and she said "Yes son. It's very comforting to know that we are not alone anymore."

She meant of course, that there were people up there, and it was strangely reassuring to her. We had recently lost our most precious loved one. Her husband, and my father. We hung close together for a moment, gazing in wonderment at the Moon. It is a memory I will cherish forever.

When the crew of Apollo 11 returned safely to Earth, we once again looked up at the moon, with sorrow that no one was there anymore. it was very poignant. It was a magical moment, and we both knew that somehow, together, in our lifetimes, we had experienced something unique.

It was a moment when a mother and son raised their eyes to the heavens and felt at peace. Somehow, the pain of loss had been alleviated by the knowledge than man had landed on the moon, and that anything is possible. "Grasp the future" she said to me "It is there for the taking."

My mother died in 1997. She never forgot the moment we were together looking up at the sky….and neither have I. We owe Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins for that.

There are people who question whether the moon landings actually happened. They believe it is a great conspiracy. They wonder why Armstrong kept silent afterwards. But they weren't born then. They never experienced the times.

I believe Armstrong was the first man on the moon – I wasn't with him, but I was there.

I was there, and nobody can take away my memory no matter how hard they try to destroy it!