Lysander

I want to do my bit to keep the language alive. My mother (b 1921) could not speak English until she was 9. Her father died of TB and she went to Howells School Denbigh on something like an “orphan scholarship” where she had to speak English. My uncle, her brother, used to speak of the “Welsh knot” but I am not sure if it was applied directly to his class at that time. My Nain would speak to Mum in Welsh and she would answer in English and my brother and I were never encouraged to learn it (we lived at the time on Merseyside). She returned to live in Llangollen in the 1980s but she was a bit embarrassed to speak Welsh as she felt she sounded “old fashioned” and “posh”! She died 20 years ago and if I had my time over I would have got her to speak Welsh with me and with others. I tried to encourage our own 3 children to learn Welsh at school, but 2 lessons a week along with 2 lessons of German/French was not really going to work especially as none of the friends here in Flintshire spoke Welsh and mine is elementary at best. However, now with their own children, they are appreciating the value of Welsh and I’m doing what I can to encourage it with the next generation – my grandchildren.