{"id":1658,"date":"2023-06-21T07:19:05","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T07:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1658"},"modified":"2023-06-21T07:19:11","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T07:19:11","slug":"mams-comforting-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/mams-comforting-hand\/1658\/","title":{"rendered":"Mam\u2019s comforting hand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"dead<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dafydd scanned the dirty, black surroundings as he approached the colliery. Clouds of acrid dusty smoke belched from the tall chimney that covered the hillside. The pit head wheel rotated lowering colliers underground at the beginning of each shift. Dada and Dafydd, wearing their worn corduroy trousers and jackets, arrived promptly at the mine entrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

       They reported to the office where the manager\u2019s voice called out. \u201cBring him in Dai. Duw Dafydd, you\u2019re starting work today. Are you looking forward to it?\u201d Nervously he replied yes. Dafydd showed his anxiousness. Dada\u2019s firm and comforting hand calmed him. \u201cSteady bach, you\u2019ll be fine\u201d. They entered the cage and the door shutting unnerved Dafydd. The winding wheel clunked into life. His pulse quickened, his stomach churned, his palms and forehead became sweaty. The cage lowered. They were met below by Emlyn, a well-built giant whose face was covered in black dust.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cTake care of my boy, Emlyn.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t fret Dai. Dafydd, you and I will look after the ponies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

         The shift began and Dafydd learned the job.  He fed the ponies in the underground stable. He began to relax. A sudden commotion made his stomach tighten. Another lad was running towards him.  \u201cCome quick, there\u2019s a badly injured pony down by seam four.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happened?\u201d Emlyn enquired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cI think it\u2019s broken its leg. It\u2019s in agony. I don\u2019t know what to do\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

             Emlyn nodded at Dafydd.  \u201cCome with me Bach, you must see what a collier\u2019s life is  like.\u201d Lying beside the pony, Emlyn moved his hands up and down the pony\u2019s legs. Dafydd watched closely. The pony writhed from side to side making an awful screaming sound.  Dafydd put his hands over his ears to muffle the sound.  He wished he could cover his eyes as well, it was heartbreaking to watch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cI can\u2019t do anything for it.  Go and get the brown leather case under the bench\u201d. Emlyn shouted. Dafydd returned and asked him what he was going to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

             \u201cI\u2019m going to have to put him down.\u201d  Emlyn stroked the pony to calm him. A leather covering was taken from the bag and was placed over its head.  The gun was inserted in the hole at the top of the hood. Dafydd was horrified. \u201cIt has to be done. The pony is suffering. Better to get it over with on your first shift. It\u2019ll happen again, I\u2019m sure.\u201d While stroking the pony\u2019s head to relieve stress, \u2018BANG\u2019. The gun was fired. Dafydd got up and ran out heading toward the stable block, tears running down his face. The colour drained from his body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

           Dada collected Dafydd at the end of the shift and Emlyn explained what had happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDere Bach, let\u2019s go home.\u201d Reaching the house Mam saw the unhappiness on his face and quickly hugged her distraught son. Dafydd felt a sense of relief at being home in the safety of his family. No matter what Da said, he wished he didn\u2019t have to go back tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They reported to the office where the manager\u2019s voice called out. \u201cBring him in Dai. Duw Dafydd, you\u2019re starting work today. Are you looking forward to it?\u201d Nervously he replied yes. Dafydd showed his anxiousness. Dada\u2019s firm and comforting hand calmed him. \u201cSteady bach, you\u2019ll be fine\u201d. They entered the cage and the door shutting unnerved Dafydd. The winding wheel clunked into life. His pulse quickened, his stomach churned, his palms and forehead became sweaty. The cage lowered. They were met below by Emlyn, a well-built giant whose face was covered in black dust.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[695,782],"tags":[6,828,830,825,826,829,8,122,20,827,118,832,11,159,831],"class_list":["post-1658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-695","category-june-2023-home-sweet-home","tag-black","tag-comforting","tag-covered","tag-dafydd","tag-emlyn","tag-hand","tag-he","tag-him","tag-his","tag-pony","tag-they","tag-underground","tag-was","tag-what","tag-wheel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-qK","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1660,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658\/revisions\/1660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}