Advent Calendar: Eliza Howells

Eliza "Bessie" Anne Jones nee Howells aka Nain
(Eliza never particularly liked her name, and always went by the preferred Bessie. Nain is pronounced "nine," and is the Northern Welsh word for grandmother.)

Born 1885, Died 1980, aged 94
Lived in: Penrhiwceiber, Wales; Winnapeg, Manatoba; Vancouver, BC
Married: Daniel Thomas Jones
Children:
Marjorie Grace Jones
Edwina Hannah Jones
Merle Tydfil Jones
Ivor Howell Jones

Bessie Howells was born to Gabriel and Selina Howells, a Northern Welsh couple, in Penrhiwceiber, Wales, a small mining town, where she lived for the first eight years of her life. Her father was a stone-mason who made a living building stone work for the mines. The work was nearly as unhealthy as mining itself, and Gabriel decided to take one of his brother's offers and move their family to Canada where his brother was living at the time. The Howells immigrated there in 1893, and settled on the farm with Gabriel's brother, but Gabriel found that farming wasn't for him, and the family moved again, this time to the nearby city of Winnapeg, where Gabriel put his stone-masonry skills to work. After a time, the family moved towards the west coast. Vancouver was a boom-town at the time, and the family settled there. Bessie met a young man there by the name of Daniel Jones, and in 1911, the two were married. The two lived happily together in Vancouver, where they raised four children together. After Daniel's death in 1964, Bessie began to slow down, though she did quite well for many years before settling into a nursing home in BC, where she lived until her death in 1980.