Shirley Toulson was born in 20. 1924 in England. she was writer, editor of magazine. she came under the influence of Celtic Christianity. Shirley Toulson has been writing books on the social history of the countryside since 1974. She is a leading authority on ancient tracks and drove roads and is the author of 'The Drovers' Roads of Wales' and 'The Drovers Roads of

The poet remembers her mother who died about twelve year ago. The poet recalls how her mother used to look at a photograph and remember her own childhood. The photograph was taken when her mother had gone for a sea holidays with her cousins and her uncle. Looking at her mother’s photograph,

The cardboard shows me how it wasWhen the two girl cousins went paddling,Each one holding one of my mother’s hands,As she the big girl – some twelve year or so.

All three stood still to smile through their hairAt the uncle with the camera. A sweet face,My mother’s, that was before I was born.

And the sea, which appears to have changedless,Washed their terribly transient feet.

Some twenty - thirty - years laterShe’d laugh at the snapshot. “See BettyAnd Dolly,” she’d say, “and look how theyDressed us for the beach.”

The sea holiday Was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wryWith the laboured ease of loss.

Now she’s been dead nearly as many yearsAs that girl lived. And of this circumstanceThere is nothing to say at all.Its silence silences.