How Green Was My Valley

I read the book when I was eleven or so. It was among the very few books that made me feel I was too young to tackle that kind of emotion. I remember thinking that I would be able to feel everything better when I was older and did not need to look up words like ‘colliery’ which found their way into every chapter of the book.

I never did read the book again, but I did watch the movie.

I wept right through it.

Family love is unique. Brother and brother, father and son, mother and son. How Green Was My Valley explored the family bond to the core of its being. Humour, emotion, religion, marriage, hardship . . . all these come together in the green valley in ways that are incredible.
The simplicity of the young widow’s statement, “I’m lonely.” . . . How could I not cry?
And dear Mrs. Morgan is delightful, truly beyond compare, there’s an old beauty, you are!

Ah. And there is a glorious Welsh accent, it has.

My breath catches in my throat even as I think about it.