A Special Farwell
Saundra says goodbye to the village life of Pontyberem.
"I'm like a passenger going on a train journey, sitting with my back to the engine, I see only what has passed.
I bemoan the fact that my village of Pontyberem has changed so much. I have lived here all of my life, so have generations of my family.
The school which once stood in the centre of the village was closed and razed to the ground. No more sounds of children playing in the yard, or the drone of learning by rote.
The majestic ironmongers went; along with shop Jack, Siop Shoni Hughes, Luipi's.
Coalbrook House - an old mansion built in the year 1670 - slowly crumbled away, because no one cared.
Outside the Star Inn stood the white hawthron tree. We would gather here - it was our 'mob' for hide and seek. But it was cut down, even though the old people had warned that floods would follow - and they did.
The hump-back bridge was demolished because it was considered too narrow, and too weak for all the traffic. I remember the little butcher shop - Siop Bessie'r Cig, which clung to the bridge like a barnacle. It disappeared along with the bridge.
On New Year's Eve, the colliery hooters would blast out Blwyddyn Newydd Dda. The noise of the other hooters would resound throughout the Gwendraeth Valley. Pentre Mawr colliery closed down. All quiet now.
Life is a journey - things change - but not always for the better.
Farewell dear village, you will never be the same again.
Neither, I suppose, will I."
Saundra Storch
