This is Meredith Baughan born in Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales. Some linguists say her name comes from old Gaelic and means "Heroic warlord" others believe it is "Quick-witted and skillful with the sword". IMO, same difference!
I met her at King and Victoria, we had coffee and she told me her story ... When she was two, her parents sold their small dairy farm, emigrated to the US and settled in Boston. Meredith does not recall any of this. They never liked it there and moved to Toronto where they opened a small chip shop on Dundas East. Meredith remembers going to school reeking of fried fish and rancid oil and being bullied. She was an exceptional student but a violent loner. She was admitted to Western to study Chemistry but dropped out when her novel (What an Hour Brings) was published and made the shortlist for the Windham-Cambell literary prize. She did not win and went into a tail-spin, was arrested twice for drunk and disorderly and once for aggravated assault (against a juror of Windham-Cambell). She was released on bail and was not charged. She never wrote anything again and currently runs her parent's chip shop with a staff of disadvantaged youngsters whom she teaches and trains to cook.
Last February, she traveled to Wales with the urn of her parent's ashes. At night, she entered the "G H Griffits & Co" Dairy Farmers, Plas Newydd, Pwllheli, Gwynedd (LL53 6NG) and spread their remains on the premises of the farm they once owned. The next day Meredith went to Cardiff and was one of the 73,931 spectators at the Principality Stadium to see Wales beating England 21 - 13.
When Meredith walks, tall and slim, she reminds me of a birch tree that decided to pick up and move for fear that standing still would wither it.
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