The portraits that helped bring the lost Aberfan children home
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Figure caption: The portraits which helped to bring the children of Aberfan home
By Huw Thomas, Wales business correspondent, Tony Brown and Dani Thomas, BBC Wales
Published 18 October 2026 Updated 17 minutes ago
For almost 60 years, many of Aberfan's lost children have watched over living rooms, hallways and family gatherings across the village. Some were painted from faded school photographs. Others were shaped by the memories of grieving parents, who wrote letters to an artist describing the children they had lost: the colour of their eyes, their favourite clothes, the flashes of personality that made them unique.
In a new BBC programme, Unseen: The Aberfan Portraits, some have shared their paintings and spoken about how the art helped them grieve.
"It brought her back to life," said Denise Morgan, whose younger sister Annette was among those who died in the Aberfan disaster.
On 21 October 1966, a coal tip collapsed above the village. The torrent of slurry engulfed Pantglas Junior School and nearby homes, killing 144 people including 116 children.
The disaster remains woven into everyday life in Aberfan. It is felt most strongly in the memorial garden on the site of the fallen school, and among the white arched monuments of the cemetery. But it's also felt in the empty places left behind at family tables, in childhood bedrooms which were suddenly occupied by one child instead of two, and in the portraits that came to represent those who never grew up.
Jeanette Keane lost her sister Edwina. "It was just such an idyllic childhood really," she said. "She was very quiet and gentle. She had a mischievous streak as well."
The morning of the disaster remains painfully vivid, as Jeanette recalled how Edwina quickly returned home before the school day had begun. "She came running back and she said, 'Mammy, I forgot to give you a kiss'," Jeanette said. "And so my mother gave her a kiss."
Her father found Edwina trapped beneath the wreckage. "She was alive," Jeanette said, but it was a heartbreaking situation. "He couldn't get her out because the roof would have fallen in. The men all said, 'Teddy, you can't,' and my father laid by the side of her, held her hand and she suffocated."
The trauma echoed through the years that followed the disaster. "It explains to me why we used to hear him walking back and forth in the corridor at night, banging his head on the wall," Jeanette said. "It wasn't a very happy life afterwards. Everything changed."
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