‘I wish I could speak Welsh again, but I suppose I never will’
DESPITE living in the North-East American state of Ohio for the past 70 years, there was always a piece of 96-year-old Ray McDermott 3,500 miles away in a small corner of Wales.
It was there in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, that Ray was born before spending her childhood between Haverfordwest, Aberystwyth and Ystalyfera.
After uprooting her life and moving to America when she was only 18, Ray waved goodbye to her life in Wales, but continued to speak Welsh with her mum - keeping a little bit of home wherever she went.
But the mum-of-two lost her own mum forty years ago and hadn’t spoken her mother tongue since.
Ray McDermott, 96, who moved to America after meeting her husband Jim, a soldier from Houston, Texas, often thought about her Welsh roots and yearned to speak her native language again.
Ray’s son Keith said: “I was always the repository for her stories about her life in Wales, and I’m familiar with the places and people who inhabit her stories.”
Despite suffering from short-term memory loss and sometimes not remembering what she has done that day, Ray’s childhood memories in Wales remain crystal clear.
“She has often yearned to return once more to see Ystalyfera, the village where she spent the most time. I knew, given her age, that kind of travel is out of the question. But in one conversation, when she said, ‘I wish I could speak Welsh again, but I suppose I never will’ - I thought that’s a wish I can make happen,” added Keith.
Keith, who lives in New York, was desperate to help his mum Ray speak Welsh again, especially during the pandemic because she is living alone.
Keith, 70, had previously joined a group on Facebook called ‘New York Welsh’ to research a book inspired by his mum and Wales and posted on the group asking for any Welsh speakers that could speak mum.
“Within a half hour after posting, I had over thirty responses. I was touched and a little overwhelmed. I thanked everyone and
Welsh with his eventually asked Melisa, a Welsh speaking New Yorker, to phone her. She did and she and my mom spoke in Welsh and mainly spoke about Wales,” said the writer, who added that his mother was moved to tears by the call and, “has spoken about it many times since”.
“Speaking with Melisa, her (Ray’s) Welsh was, understandably, a little rusty. A few more Welsh conversations and I think she’d be fluent again. I’m thinking of approaching some of the other kind responders to my post.”
The pair said the kindness of strangers had moved them especially during the pandemic when Ray had been feeling lonely and isolated.
“When you have a parent in their nineties, you find you have something in common with them that neither of you imagined ever having: you’re both old, so I’m very sympathetic to my mother’s feelings of isolation and vulnerability during this strange time; I’m feeling it myself.
“Because of my own interest in Wales, I found I enjoyed revisiting the past with her - when I could bring that past a little up to date, by arranging for her to speak Welsh, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.”
“Within a half hour after posting, I had over thirty responses. I was touched and a little overwhelmed Keith McDermott