Moving tributes have been paid to a hugely popular grandmother following her sudden death aged 57. Melissa Morgans was well known in her home village Cwmaman for her kindness and the trust she inspired in people.
Melissa, who died on Wednesday of causes not yet confirmed, spent seven years as a support worker but her whole life was defined by generous and caring interactions with others, said her only daughter Yasmine. "Strangers would come up to her in the street and tell her their life story," Yasmine told WalesOnline. "I think a lot of people felt they could talk to her and not be judged. She would do anything for anybody."
Although Yasmine, 37, was aware of her mother's popularity she was taken aback by the response when she posted the news of her death in an Aberdare Facebook group. Hundreds of people posted reactions and comments paying tribute to the "special" and "always smiling" Melissa.
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Melissa was born in 1965 to Gwyn, a coal miner in Cwmaman, and Joan, a chef for the miners, who raised their five children to stand up for the marginalised. Gwyn was among the Welsh miners who travelled to London in 1985 to march with Gay Pride — the story that inspired the 2014 film Pride, which Melissa loved.
Yasmine's daughter Roxy, 18, said: "She was exposed to class differences and had a lot of friends from marginalised communities. She very much raised me and my mam to be inclusive of everyone. She was very ahead of her time."
During a visit to Aberdare library when she was 19, Melissa met Bhim, a karate teacher who had come to Wales from Nepal. Within a week they had eloped to London and soon afterwards became parents to Yasmine. They opened an Indian restaurant in Romford, with Bhim cooking and Melissa front of house.
Melissa had enjoyed the excitement of life in London but after three years she and Bhim returned to Cwmaman so she could care for Joan, who was struggling with several illnesses. "I think she did miss living in London a lot, because we used to visit there a lot after that," said Yasmine. "But family was the most important thing to her."
Yasmine added that there were very few people of Asian heritage in Cwmaman at the time. Roxy said: "It was difficult because she was in a mixed-race relationship and they experienced a lot of bigotry from people in the '80s and '90s."
Melissa spent several years working in local shops as well as caring for her daughter and mother, before opening an Indian restaurant with Bhim — the Taj Mahal in Merthyr Tydfil. "He was in the kitchen and she did everything else," said Yasmine. "She was business-savvy and a social butterfly with the customers. She wasn't as good at cooking but she loved the food. Nobody could compare my father's cooking to anyone else's — people thought it was the best food in the area."
Despite the restaurant's popularity it only ran for four years in the '90s due to the stress of running the business in a tough economic climate. Melissa was also dealing with depression and got help from Aberdare's New Horizons mental health drop-in centre, which inspired her to become a support worker there.
Roxy said: "She had no training but she was a natural. She created a lot of activities for people, like colouring which is seen as a mindfulness technique now but probably wouldn't have been expected then. She'd tell people, 'If you're ever stressed just start colouring.'"
Yasmine added: "Helping people helped her. A lot of the people who went there had nothing to do at all — no hobbies or family or friends — and it gave them something. She'd plan parties, day trips, nights out. They'd go to London in the pouring rain and still have fun."
Melissa, who loved dancing, put on New Horizons disco events at the Cwmaman Institute. "When it came to music she liked the flamboyant — anything different," said Yasmine. "She loved David Bowie and Prince."
She also had an artistic flair, drawing Disney characters on Yasmine's bedroom wall when she was a child, and later doing the same with Roxy. Using découpage cutouts, Melissa would decorate rooms with different themes. "One might be floral, another might be peacocks," laughed Yasmine. "It was all very Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen."
Melissa, who experienced chronic pain from fibromyalgia, gave up her work at New Horizons in 2005 and spent much of her time caring for Roxy so Yasmine could concentrate on her education. Yasmine, now a transport officer for Newport council, said: "She wished the world for Roxy and me."
Melissa had lost both parents by 2005 and the death of Bhim aged 66 from a heart attack in 2020 was another "very hard" blow for her. But Yasmine said: "She never stopped loving and caring despite losing her parents and partner too soon.
"She would always go into town and she'd be guaranteed to see people she knew who would stop and talk to her. Even strangers would chat to her. I remember we went to Brighton on holiday and people were flashing love hearts to her with their fingers. There was a guy offering her seeds to feed the pigeons. She had one of those faces that seemed to attract anybody and everybody.
Only last Sunday, Yasmine spent time with Melissa in Cardiff for some Christmas shopping and a meal at Santiago's Tapas restaurant. Yasmine said that she had seemed her usual self and her death three days later came as a shock, but that she had long struggled with fibromyalgia and other illnesses which could have been the cause. She had recently learned that Roxy would be heading to study English at King's College London, which had made her very proud.
When Yasmine shared the news of her mother's death on Facebook, she was overwhelmed by the outpouring of messages. One comment read: "I remember [your] mam in New Horizons, she was a real inspiration probably going back 20 years. Often seen Melissa in town, no matter how she was feeling she always stopped to say hello. Such a lovely lady and beautiful smile."
Yasmine said: "I had lots of messages from strangers and a couple of phone calls. The words that kept coming up in all the comments were 'lovely' and 'beautiful'."
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