Great Grandma Thomas

I never remembered Great Grandma Thomas when she was independent. By the time I spent time around her, she would become "forgetful" occasionally, and a couple of times, I went there with my Grandma Liza when she stayed with her mom overnight, yet there were days when she was extremely lucid, and she would tell us about historical things she remembered. One night, she and my aunts told about a solar eclipse, and how badly it scared all of them in the area, because they had no idea what was happening.
I remember their saying that animals were going in, because they thought it was nightfall, although it was in the middle of the day.

And I remember her having a wood stove that not only kept her house warm, but she used it to cook as well. I remember one breakfast that she cooked on that stove and how good it tasted.

Her bread in the oven was incredible.

Once while in Salzburg, we found a monk baking bread in a kiln in the city. I bought some of that bread, and I have never tasted anything so good. Regardless what people say, some old ways are still best, but cooking with a wood stove like that is an art that few today really can master.

The picture at the left shows Great Grandma Thomas and Maud Vaughan. Grandma stands at the left.

I remember my Grandma Liza asking my parents and me if I would be interested in learning Welsh. It was scary for me at that time to think about a different language, which seems so stupid now. I will always regret that decision, but I was very young, and it would have been so easy to learn the language like that.

Grandma Thomas was the one who cooked the breakfast biscuits that our family always loved to have in the morning. The Ward tradition was to have roasted cheese with them, and we also always liked putting jam on the cheese as well. I'm not sure, but I think the melted cheese thing is English, but the biscuit recipe came from Welsh roots.