When I want to feel connected to my roots I come to The Mumbles, a seaside town near Swansea. I’ve been coming here since I was a little girl, so it feels like a home from home.
I’m currently staying a short walk away from the pharmacy that was once a hair salon run by my paternal grandparents and the two-up two-down where my mum was born and grew up.
But the place that’s most resonant for me here is Mumbles pier, which stretches out into Swansea Bay, at the end its famous lifeboat station and behind that the Mumbles lighthouse.
There’s nothing particularly special about the pier itself but it’s special to me because my parents met there – at a dance hall in the Pier Hotel on Boxing Day 1946.
In a sense that is where my story begins – and where I want it to end. It’s in my will that I want my ashes to be scattered into the sea here.
If my dad had achieved his initial aim of dancing with my mum’s best friend Joyce that Christmas, my story may never have started. But another chap beat him to it so he felt obliged to ask my mum instead. And the rest is family history…
My dad was technically Cockney (born within the sound of the Bow bells) but my grandfather thought it wise to send my grandmother, dad, uncle and aunty to live in The Mumbles (where he lived before moving to London) when war broke out in 1939.
Little did he know that the Germans would frequently bomb Swansea docks so they weren’t much safer here than in London.
My grandfather eventually joined them and the family stayed in Wales – except my dad, who moved back to the capital with my mum in the early 50s. I always thank him for that, as even though I love visiting The Mumbles I’m glad I wasn’t raised here.
Because…
I would never have had the opportunities that London provided.
I would never have become a music journalist and travelled the world.
I would never have worked for national newspapers.
I would never have become a public speaking trainer.
I might have lived a much smaller life. All because of the choices my father made.
Dancing with my mother.
Taking a job in London.
We are all the product of choices beyond our control. Our stories emerge from those choices. Then our choices affect the stories of others – especially our children.
As I don’t have children my stories are my legacy. That’s why I’m telling you this story about what The Mumbles means to me and how my story began here.
Where did your story begin?
How have the choices made by others affected your story?
Where are your special places?
These questions matter because they can create meaning in your life and connect you to your purpose.
For me it’s honouring our personal stories and sharing them in service of others. Helping people tell their stories and express themselves in the written and spoken word is what fuels my fire.
And it all started on Mumbles pier…
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