Dinah Evans

Uncle Will described his visit back to England in 1888 this way:
When I visited Great Britain in 1888©89, I went to father's boyhoodhome to Aberdare where his father had his shop. I was told what awonderful Biblical scholar he was, how well versed in church history,how conversant with the writings of the Scottish "fathers of thechurch." The clergyman would tramp up the valley of the Taft fromCardiff, 20 miles or more, to get the benefit of the old shoemaker'sideas and opinions on knotty questions of tenet and dogma or obscurematters of history. His was the largest funeral ever seen in thatWelsh valley.

Down to the wild Welsh coast I went. To a little hamlet namesHoelymynydd, where the old shoemaker's wife (Al's grandmother) livedwith her daughter, Ellen (Al's aunt). The old lady, though in her87th year, held her almost 6 feet of height as straight as an arrowand her black eyes were bright and discerning. I shall alwaysremember how she talked of father's young days as we sat in front ofthe drift wood fire with its green and purple flames while the windfrom the sea rattled the little casement windows. This I recall - onthe wall of her room hung a clock, an old-fashioned thing, open-facedwith chains and weights. "Willie," she said, "they tell me that theYankees are clever with their hands. This clock of mine has beenstriking wrong for years and years. Can you mend it?" It was easilydone and she was greatly pleased. A week or so later, I, returningfrom a trip along the coast was called to her room. "Willie, you'llhave to put that clock back as it was. I have been reckoning andcalculating with it for so long that I must keep it up."