Dan Fox as a child with his nain, or grandmother, in the yard of Siambr Wen, near Llanrwst, North Wales, UK. Courtesy the author My maternal grandmother died twenty years ago. The funeral was held in a small Methodist chapel in the lush Conwy Valley of North Wales. Her entire life—she had almost reached one hundred—was spent in these hills. The drizzle that morning had slicked the trees and turned the slate of the chapel black.