The obituary notice of Mary Margaret THOMAS

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She enjoyed going out for meals with family and friends, nearly always ordering her favourite meal of fish and chips and usually insisted on paying for everyone.
In her late 80’s despite help from kind friends, family and neighbours in Port Talbot life on her own was getting difficult. Although she took some persuading to move there Margaret blossomed at Llantarnam Lodge. She made new friends, enjoyed trips out with Fiona and Dave now living nearby, joined in quizzes, art and loved old time music plus of course, the highlight of her week, the baby singalong, combining two of her favourite things!
Margaret became ill in May and Fiona and Clare were told to prepare for the worse four times in May and June. However, she fought her way through to return for a final summer at Llantarnam Lodge. Sadly, her lengthy stay in hospital had weakened her and she finally succumbed to yet another infection after a short illness.
Margaret loved bonfire night and fireworks, evoking as they did memories of childhood birthday celebrations. This year there will be a rocket going up just for her on 6th November on what would have been her 90th birthday.

In her younger years Margaret was a faithful member of Cwmafan Methodist Chapel serving as a Sunday School teacher and leader of the Young Worshippers group. In this she was following the family tradition of her mother and grandmother. She also organised chapel nativity plays in which, strangely, Fiona and Clare frequently appeared in major roles. After moving to Port Talbot she involved herself in Girl’s Brigade and the Temperance Society, helping to organise the crowning of the Temperance Queen each year. An avid TV watcher she was a member of the BBC audience research panel. She had an encyclopaedic knowledge of family lore which she willingly and entertainingly shared with the wider family and was of great help in Fiona and Clare’s family history research.
Margaret did enjoy watching some sports if not football! In her early days she was a great supporter of Glamorgan County Cricket Club, attending matches at St Helens, Swansea whenever she could. She retained a lifelong interest, occasionally tinged with despair, in the game. Rugby was her other sporting passion as can be judged by the occasion when she woke Clare and Emily in the middle of the night announcing that ‘something terrible had happened’ it transpired that the Welsh rugby head coach had left his job!
She loved to travel, making friends as she went and seemingly finding Cwmafan expats in all corners of the globe. During the 70s and 80s she and Ormond journeyed widely including an “Around the World in 80 days trip” and flights on Concorde which she loved. On her return she would regale friends and relatives with her traveller’s tales though it has to be said she never let the truth get in the way of a good story! After the death of Ormond in 1987 she continued travelling with family and friends. She loved gardens although not gardening and gardens formed the basis for shorter holidays taken in her later years with Fiona when she had finally eschewed foreign travel.

Mary Margaret Thomas was born on the 6th November 1930 in the family home at Somerset Place, Cwmafan. She enjoyed a happy childhood, surrounded by family and friends. It was a multi-generational household consisting of her parents, Tom and Mary-Lizzie, younger sister Joan, and her maternal grandparents Polly and John with whom she was very close. She seemed to have spent much of her first few years being taken to visit various relatives by Polly. Bruce, a liver and white spaniel also figured largely in her memories. The house was adjacent to a railway line, engendering in her a lifelong love of trains - though they had to be steam driven! She left school as head girl and went to work at the Co-op. There she was promoted to the office and then to cashier (she was always very proud of that).
In March 1954 Margaret married Ormond Thomas at Cwmafan Methodist chapel having become engaged on a holiday to Jersey the previous year. The first years of their marriage were spent in Corby, Northamptonshire where they lived for only a few years but made lifelong friends. It was there that their first child Fiona was born, their family being completed by the birth of a second daughter Clare after their return to Cwmafan. After her marriage Margaret devoted herself to her family, first her children and then grandchildren, Emily and Andrew. She always followed Portsmouth football news and scores so that she could have detailed conversations with football mad Emily and Andrew about ‘their’ team even though she had no interest in football herself. A very generous lady, she loved to treat family and friends and was always happy as long as she was making her family happy. The family never had a visit home without coming away laden with gifts!

Dear Aunty Margaret l will miss our little chats,you always put a smile on my face, your knowledge of our family history was unbelievable & interesting,you will be sorely missed by everyone who knew & loved you.All our love Alyson & Roy XX