With a song in my heart

The emotional highlight of our reunion at Craig-y-nos castle earlier this week was when Roger Wyn Beynon (pictured ) sang in Welsh in the Adelina Patti theatre.
 
 Suddenly we were swept into the heart of Welsh culture.
 
Roger was a toddler when he was first admitted to this childrens TB sanatorium in the Swansea valley and he was to remain there for five years.
 
Like many children he was tied to his bed and the  “re-strainers” can be clearly seen in this photo.
 
Roger remembers the shock he got when he came home and saw strange creatures running towards him. They were girls. He had never seen one before.
 
He grew up to become a successful businessman running his own engineering company and his wife, a psychologist, did her Ph.D. thesis on institutionalization.
 
Only this evening when I checked his story in our book, “The Children of Craig-y-nos” did I discover that we were there at the same time.
 
But we never met until this week.

*Adelina Patti was an international opera diva who owned the castle before it became a childrens hospital. She hosted concerts in her own private theatre. Today its used for weddings.