My grandmother

Enid Rosamond Jones was my maternal grandmother. She died in February 1987. A gifted yet troubled woman, Enid won a joint Fulbright and English Speaking Union Scholarship in 1952 for study in the United States. She attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts - one of the 'Seven Sister' colleges, then considered the women's ivy league. Aged 21 and hailing from mining stock, she had never before left Wales.

We had the opportunity on Monday to visit Smith's library. Two incredibly kind archivists rummaged through the major publications for that year and hit upon some real gems. Enid's picture, taken from the 1953 yearbook, is shown above. Their other discovery was a short write-up in the student newspaper, The Smith College Sophian, on the front page of the October '52 edition:

'The first Welsh student ever to come to Smith is Miss Enid Jones, G.S. [Graduate Student], who is from South Wales near Cardiff. She passed her law degree at the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth in West Wales. Miss Jones will write her thesis on comparative administration law under Mr. Chapman. In another year she will be able to take the Bar exam back in England. Miss Jones thinks that the house system is "a jolly good idea" and that the singing at Smith is very good. She assured us that as much singing goes on in Wales as at Smith.'

On completing her course - not with any great distinction on account of the rollicking fun she had! - Enid embarked on a speaking tour of the United States, a condition of her ESU grant. She returned to Britain physically exhausted. Though never going on to become a barrister, she taught law at Hendon Technical Institute (present-day Middlesex University) before multiple sclerosis, diagnosed when she was just 30 years old, put paid to her fledgling career. A remission from the disease provided the chance to raise a family. But for the final ten years of this all-too-brief life, my grandmother, wheelchair-bound, suffered painfully.

The tragic unfolding of later events set into sharper relief for us the joy Enid so easily found in America. She often wished she'd stayed here; South Wales appeared unbearably glum and parochial by comparison.

While I didn't know her, it touches me to think that some of Enid's best and happiest years were spent only a couple of hours away from where I too now live.