Friends In The Church

The Bryant family became quite active members of the Church. Nellie Wintle, a younger member of that family, was my special friend. The night of the reorganization of the branch, President [James Gunn]McKay and one of the Elders administered to Nellie. She had been ill for some time and the doctors diagnosed it as TB and advised sending her to a sanatorium for patients with that disease. In the administration, President McKay blessed her that she would be made well and become a mother in Israel. But he also gave them a warning that on no account were they to let her go to that sanatorium. If they did, she would die. Edith Bryant had already made arrangements for her to go and she was afraid that if she withdrew her application the doctor and others who had helped with the arrangements would be offended so they let her go. I visited her there several times and I could see what President McKay was warning her about. Even in winter the windows were always wide open and rain was beating in. There were several patients in Nellie's room in the last stages of the disease who died while Nellie was there. They had her brought home in three months and she died soon after. It surely pays to heed the counsel of the Lord's servants.

There was another family I might mention--the Day family--in Cardiff Wales. Wales at that time was included in the Bristol District or Conference and during the war young Fred who was barely 18 years old became President of the District. It was amazing how this young man took on the stature of a spiritual giant. His father, my father, and all older people as well as the young ones, listened to his counsel. After the war we used to hold our conferences at Cardiff. The Days had a large, three story house. In ordinary times they took in boarders but this first conference after the war their house was empty except for the family so many of us were invited to stay there. President and Sister David O. McKay also stayed there. How thrilled we were to sleep in the same house as an Apostle.

I had another special friend who belonged to the Church. Her name was Ellen Forward. She lived in a small mining town called Varteg, near Pontypool in Wales. When conference time came we always made arrangements to stay at the same place. I used to spend some of my yearly vacations at her home. There were five houses built of stone, the back going into the hill. They were in a row. All of the people living in this row were Mormons so the townspeople nicknamed it the Five Houses, or Mormon Row. The Forwards, the Biggs' the Thomas's, the Bendall's and the Griffiths'.

Gorse

We had wonderful times roaming those beautiful Welsh hills together. They were green all the year around. One would come upon waterfalls and small streams in the most unexpected places and wild flowers were everywhere. The yellow bracken or gorse in the spring covered the wild places and the purple heather in the Fall was beautiful.

Heather

Ellen's father was not a member of the church. At one time he was very opposed to it. He used to enjoy taking us for walks and showing us places and things we had not seen before. Sometimes when no one else was around he would ask me questions about the church. The Varteg branch had no regular meeting house so the Saints met in different houses. I think they used to go to the Jones house because it was central and a little larger than most. To get there we had to walk over the hills about 6 miles so we took a lunch and ate it between Sunday School and Sacrament meeting. Those were very delightful days. On the way to and fro we would sing the songs of Zion together or discuss some of the gospel principles.