Monday, March 12, 2007

Glynne Lowe, patient in 1927

Glynne Lowe, age 86, from Brecon is one of the oldest ex -patients to make contact.
This is an extract from an interview he did with Caroline Boyce:

“I was 6 years of age when I went in during 1927
and I was there for 7 months before being transferred to Talgarth.
“I have no memory of treatment, apart from lying in bed, though I do remember having red sores on my legs and I still have the marks today.”
“The beds were white iron cots there were 10-12 beds and possibly more in a middle row in the ward.

He has no memories of the food , or of being cold-”you don’t feel the cold when you’re a kid.”

He recalls eating at a table at one end of the ward.
“They kept sweets there, and we were given sweets after dinner.”

Christmas at Craig-y-nos:” I remember being entertained in the Adelina Patti theatre by Harold Elston, who was a ventriloquist, and Mr Whitney, a butcher who did conjuring tricks. At the end there was a big box of sweets thrown to the children.”

Glynne went to Craig-y-nos on the train from Talgarth to Brecon, then Brecon to Peny-cae station where an ambulance took him to the hospital.

He doesn't think his mother came to visit him in Craig-y-nos : “she may have, she may not have” but cousins from Aberdare came to see him.

“I didn't like it much at Craig-y-nos - a miserable damn place.”

Married with children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren he worked most of his life selling tractors, his last job being at Elston garage in Brecon.

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