Alun Gimblett
1943-2013
My cousin in Wales, Alun Gimblett, died a few weeks
ago. I met him once, when I was a child,
but didn’t see him on any of the trips these last 15 years as an adult.
Still, I gave my son the middle name of Alan. I tried to spell it the “Welsh” way, but my
husband objected, saying that he’d have trouble with it in school. That was waaay back when almost every one
spelled their names the standard way - unlike now when sometimes I can hardly
figure out how to pronounce the letters I see before me.
Then, about 10 years or more ago, same husband said “Why
didn’t we spell it Alun?!” I could have
bonked him on the head as I reminded him of his 20-year-old objection. NOW he wished that we had spelled it with a U
rather than an A.
Nevertheless, we did name him for my favorite town in
Wales. The town where Alun Gimblett
lived as a child, by the way.
I think I must have had quite an impression of the place and
the person to want to include those two names for the naming of my only child -
even though I didn’t know at the time he was going to be an “only”.
Alun was profoundly deaf, Mom says. He managed to do all right, though. I really don’t know too much about him except
that he married and had several children.
