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Mothers’ Union

AT the November meeting the speaker was Delyth Morris-Jones and her subject was ‘The Books on my Shelf’.

Delyth is always a most entertaining speaker, so members were expecting to enjoy her talk – and they were not disappointed!

Delyth talked with countless humorous insights and anecdotes about some of the great pile of books she had brought from home for the purpose. Of course, all sorts of Bibles were there, in Welsh, English and both.

Indeed, her Welsh-speaking father read to her from the Bible, and gave her her first grounding in the language.

Often as interesting as the books themselves, with their various histories, was the fluttering out of all sorts of papers which had been enclosed in the Bibles, for safe-keeping. Cuttings, picture cards, and so on.

Delyth even found the programme for the Service of Deconsecration of the Nant-y-Moch chapel before it was drowned under the reservoir.

Then there were all sorts of other tomes. One book was a translation of a French play from 1788 into English. She was puzzled why such a book should be in a Welsh-speaking household.

Delyth’s last book to show the group was the autobiography of her uncle, J M Davies, published in 1966. He had suffered terribly during the First World War, with what we should now call post-traumatic stress.

In memory of him, and of all the soldiers who went through the agony of the trenches, she closed by reading to us a poem by Rudyard Kipling, titled Gethsemane. Knowing that Kipling lost his beloved son to that war, it was a moving experience.