Eulogy
Mum was born in Glan Llyn, on the Graig, to Irene & Rufus Williams in March 1930.
Whilst you all know her as Nita, she should have been called Anita, but her father got it wrong when he went to register her birth - I’m sure that didn’t go down too well when he got home.
She was the second child of four, and the only girl, and I’m pretty sure her father treated her like a princess! Her mother, Irene (known as mam Wales to Allyson and I) was one of the Graig Davies’ family, so there was a large extended family, that grew up together, getting up to the usual mischief.
Tales abounded of skating on the frozen ‘pond’ that was in front of the house when the outlet of Pont Saeson, now gone, was blocked during the winter, a boy of the gang being sent up the stack, and then a fire lit at the bottom, smoking on the waste mounds, now long gone, on the way home. And later, going down to the harbour to drink at the hotel there, so nobody would see them.
The girls from the Graig must have been a force to be reckoned with. Firstly they were many, secondly they were strong willed - so god help anyone that thought they could get the better of them.
At 14, she was apprenticed to John Williams the tailors of Llanelli. This was to be a five year apprenticeship.
Among the stories she told of these times was the waistcoat she was charged with making for a gentleman that had come in for a three piece suit.
The next time he came in he specifically asked that she did not work on his suit as the waistcoat buttons had been put on the wrong side - for a lady.
Sadly at the end of the apprenticeship there was no job, as they would then have to be paid the going rate, but she had a skill that would serve her well, keeping dad, allyson and I well dressed.
It was a carefree youth spent innocently enjoying themselves. There were many trips to the seaside at porthcawl, Tenby and Saundersfoot holidays in the holiday camps in their late teens early 20’s, chapel cantatas an
Jonathan Neil Semmence:
23/05/2023
