Eleanor Maren
Eleanor was born in Liverpool in 1933 to Thomas and Elsie Hughes. Thomas worked on the docks, while Elsie worked part-time in a local bakery. She was an only child, growing up in a close but ordinary working-class family.
In September 1939, at six years old, Eleanor was evacuated from Liverpool under Operation Pied Piper. Carrying a small brown suitcase, a gas-mask box and a luggage label pinned to her coat, she arrived in the small village of Taly-y-Cafn. She was taken in by the Maren family.
Their daughter, Margaret Maren, was fifteen. Although much older, Margaret quickly became Eleanor's protector. She helped her settle into village life, walked her to school, comforted her through homesickness and, over time, became the older sister Eleanor never had.
Eleanor's parents expected the separation to last only a short time. It became permanent.
In May 1941, their home in Liverpool was destroyed during the Blitz. Both Thomas and Elsie were killed. With no close relatives able to care for her, Eleanor remained with the Maren family.
No formal adoption ever took place. None seemed necessary. She was simply one of the family. As the years passed, the distinction between daughter and evacuee disappeared. In the village, Margaret and Eleanor were known simply as "the Maren girls."
Eleanor grew into a quiet, thoughtful young woman with a love of books, long walks beside the River Conwy and old photographs. She had a habit of pressing flowers between the pages of books and keeping small mementoes from ordinary days, believing that even the smallest things could become important memories.
After leaving school, she found work locally and continued to live with the Maren family. Although she was not related to them by blood, she never thought of anywhere else as home.
In late 1962, Eleanor discovered she was pregnant. She never spoke publicly about the child's father, and Margaret never pressed her for answers. Whether Eleanor chose to protect someone, wished to forget, or simply believed the matter belonged to her alone was never known.
When Rhys was born on 19 March 1963 in Taly-y-Cafn, his birth certificate contained no father's name. Complications followed the birth and despite every effort, Eleanor died later that day.
A few days after the funeral, Margaret placed everything that remained of Eleanor's life, six photographs, a handful of letters, her birth certificate, the evacuation label from the suitcase she had carried to Wales in 1939 and a small silver locket into a plain brown envelope. Unable to keep them in the house, yet unable to part with them, Margaret entrusted the envelope to the village vicar.
"I want Rhys to have these one day," she told him. "When the time is right... or when I'm no longer here."
The vicar locked the envelope away and kept Margaret's promise. Rhys grew up never knowing the envelope existed.