People I Knew

St Gabriel's Church 1938
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I knew Gordon Speck's granddad and his second wife, also their daughter Helen. His granddad used to teach music and singing in the Westlyan chapel when I was a child, At 12 years old I was confined to bed for two years and it was Mrs Speck who started my love of reading, she came to vist and bought me a book 'What Katy Did' and from then on I worked my way through all the children's classics. Their daughter Helen married my friend's brother Clive Hodgson. I was born and lived in Abergwynfi until I was sixteen, we lived in the houses across from St Gabrial's church. Around the back of the church was a haven for catching tadpoles. I remember having no fear of wandering the mountains or going up or down the woods hill even at night. I remember Mrs Brown our head mistress, she was quite scary to get on the wrong side of, which for me was quite often because I was always late for school and living so close I always had the biggest telling off. Someone somewhere may remember what happened one day when I decided to hide up behind St Gabrial's church instead of going in late again. My grandfather was known as Jimmy Caerau, my grandmother Hannah. I wrote a poem for my granddad called 'The Miner' when I was about fifteen. A few years ago I sent a copy to the mining museum. I now live in Norfolk and my friends here ask me how could I leave such a beautiful country for such a flat landscape, and it is quite true, sometimes I do get a longing to come back and wander them hills.