It's Sunday morning and I am lying in bed fully clothed. I have not been able to shift this cold of mine and felt so full of snot yesterday that I had to forgo the invite to a wine tasting dinner party last night which was a real pisser.....I have not been out of the house to anything that required a proper wash for an absolute age!
Anyhow....I have been catching up with some of my blog comments today. Hello to Carol Ellis...who left a note saying that she lives in the next village to us....always nice to hear from locals......but I have to warn her.....with organising the open day this year and with the flower show looming, I do have an annoying tendency to conscript helpers and participants...so be warned
One of the other comments noted that Auntie Gladys had not had a mention in a while, and I must apologise for that, mainly because I have not seen her in a week or so, because of my cold.
Winter colds and old people are a bit like red mite in chicken coops.......left unchecked they can run riot and cause untold damage.....
Mind you the old gal looks sprightly enough......I saw her standing at the bus stop yesterday morning in her distinctive little red coat. She was chatting to Gay Gordon and was on her way to Rhyl, six miles away for a morning's shop.
I beeped the car horn, knowing full well that she wouldn't know on earth was making such a racket, but I noticed that she waved in my general direction like the Queen Mother after a pink gin.....
Below is a brief article I found from the Flintshire Chronicle printed a few years ago now....it was a story written about Gladys..... Thought you would find it interesting
Trelawnyd resident recalls decades of Flintshire village life
May 26 2011 by Francesca Elliott, Flintshire Chronicle
ONE of Trelawnyd’s most treasured residents has shared her memories of decades of village life.
Born in 1919 in Pantymwyn, Gladys Jones, now known to all as Auntie Gladys, went to school in Gwernaffield, leaving at the age of 14.
“When I was 16 I went to Gwrn Castle in Llanasa to be head housemaid,” she said.
“Major Bates lived there with his wife. They really looked after the village.
“They held parties for the poorer children and they were very good to us, we had the same food as they were eating in the dining room and when I married my husband at the Castle they gave us a present of £50, which was a huge amount in those days.”
Gladys added: “When the war started we had to leave. I went to work in the kitchens making the dinners for the girls in the Land Army.
“I worked in Rhydymwyn, St Asaph, Holywell and Mold. I loved it.
“There were 56 girls in the Land Army around here and when the war finished we walked into Chester for a night out to celebrate, then walked back at five in the morning. Everyone was a bit drunk – it was great!”
Once Gladys’s husband, Robert – known as Bob Railway – was demobbed from the Army the couple moved to Trelawnyd, where Gladys has been a stalwart of the community ever since.
By the late 1940s she was a leading member of the Trelawnyd Welfare Committee, which was set up after the war to support poor families and pensioners in the area.
The committee evolved into the Trelawnyd Flower Show committee in the 1970s, which still exists to raise money for local projects in the village and support the memorial hall.
Bob also worked at the Point of Ayr Colliery.
At the age of 92, Gladys is still an active and integral part of the fundraising team for the show, going from door to door around the village selling hundreds of raffle tickets.
Despite all of her happy memories of the village, Gladys has had her share of tragedy, losing her daughter Edwina in a traffic accident when she was just 16.
“When I lost my daughter I thought I would never get over it,” she said.
“I remember the day perfectly, it was March 19, frosty beyond words.
“I called into the shop on the way back from feeding our lambs and the milkman asked me how Edwina was. I thought it was a funny thing to say as he had never asked before. Then my brother-in-law and a policeman came to the house, both crying. I knew then that something had happened to her.”
Decades later Gladys is a grandmother to her other daughter Reenie’s two sons, and attributes her longevity to good food, early nights and keeping busy.
She is well-known for her cooking throughout the area and has often providing refreshments for the award-winning Trelawnyd Male Voice Choir.
A stickler for tradition, Gladys continues to do as little work as possible on a Sunday – even preparing her vegetables for her Sunday roast a day early.
“When I was young the children didn’t even kick a stone on the street on a Sunday, it was disrespectful,” she said.
“The village has changed quite a bit, there are a lot more houses now, but less people, and not as many people like to get involved with things.”
If you would like to meet Gladys and taste her famous scones, visit the Trelawnyd Flower Show at the village memorial hall from 2.30pm on Saturday, August 13.
