This is a tale (and a yarn) about one lady I visited last Monday. She was sitting on her bed, bright eyed, and told me she was Welsh and came from Pembrokeshire. Lucy (my co volunteer) listened to June tell her story and that as a family she never visited the seaside; no buckets and spades for her kids. Instead, they were given climbing boots, for the family would be up and down mountains at the first opportunity.
June saw my name badge and said to me “With the name of David you should be a singer”. (Dafydd being the Welsh version.) It became clear that June was a churchgoer and I spoke of the Welsh hymn tunes Blaenwern and Cym Rhondda, the latter being the tune for Guide me O Thou great Redeemer, often known as Bread of Heaven. I asked her if she’d like to listen to a male Welsh choir sing this. I checked on Spotify and found the Morriston Orpheus Choir from Swansea. Well June sang along and knew the words to all three verses. I then told her a story about the time when I was playing at Her Majesty’s Prison Brixton, South London. Bread of Heaven was a very popular hymn sung by the male inmates and the Chaplain would always announce this hymn with “give it some welly” or “let’s raise the roof.” The prison chapel was really huge – see print above, with a very high roof, sometimes leaking so that one or two buckets would be placed on the ground to collect the drips.
About ten years ago, during a service, the Chaplain invited the prisoners in the congregation to compose a 4th verse to the hymn, seeing how much they enjoyed singing it. So he set up the competition for anyone to write a 4th verse. To no great surprise, not one inmate had a shot at it. But I did, and I presented a typed copy to the chaplain. Well he just loved it and was committed to adding it to the PowerPoint presentation for this hymn. Of course, June asked if I could remember the words. She was really interested and asked what had inspired me, believing I had had divine inspiration. I had a kind of doxology in mind, after “landing safe on Canaan’s side” and entering heaven, all things new! And I was determined to put in a line to quote the Chaplain, “lets raise the roof”.
But I could only remember half of it, being put on the spot. June said I should have put it on my phone for anyone to see it. The next day whilst at home, I was thinking it HAD to be on my phone for I remember sending the words to the chaplain by email and YES, I found the email. I hurriedly typed up the words and emailed my manager at the hospital and asked that a volunteer take it directly to the lady, who hopefully was in the same location and bed number. In fact, June had moved, but I have been informed the extra verse was indeed delivered and I’m waiting to hear from my manager with the details of June’s response. Here are the words:
Singing songs in celebration
Praising God, the First and Last,
Raise the roof of expectation
Free from sin and all things past.
Glory be to God the Father,
God the Son and Holy Ghost
Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Some years after I had retired from playing at the prison, I was invited to attend the 200th commemoration of the opening of the prison, in October 2019, and asked to play the above hymn at the beginning of the service. Oh yes please. The only downer was that everyone attending were all guests from outside the prison, staff and dignitaries that had served at the Prison. Even so, they sang with gusto!
I will add to this post by comment when I discover June's reaction!
