South Yorkshire Times April 2, 1955
Triumph over adversity
Blind Conisbrough Woman is Prize Knitter and Baker
Mrs Gladys Bramhall, of Calder Terrace, Conisbrough, paused in her knitting on Monday afternoon to show one of our reporters some examples of her work and also discuss her other hobby, which is cooking. And as she chatted and moved about her home it was difficult at times to realise that she was completely blind.
Her sight began to fail 20 years ago and she had been completely blind for about 10 or 12 years. But she has triumphed courageously over her affliction and also over the further handicap of not having any fingers on her right hand.
37 years ago she lost her fingers while working at the Conisbrough sawmill but her needles clicked with a remarkable dexterity on Monday. A further approve of her boundless courage and calm acceptance of adversity.
If the pattern is a strange one someone has to read it for her until she has memorised it but by now most patterns are familiar to Mrs Bramhall and it is only the odd one which causes her difficulty.
An attractive white cricket sweater won her a merit prize recently in the Doncaster and district home teaching Association for the Blind. She also won the merit prize for some tea cakes
“But I don’t only bake teacakes” she assured our reporter. Bread, sandwich, cakes, she bakes them all in her coal oven.
“I make more sure that people who can see when I am baking although at times I do burn myself a little. I am better by myself when I am baking or taking anything from the oven,” she said
Mrs. Bramhall attends the handicraft class at the Epworth Hall Denaby every week but apart from that she does not go out very often because she is a bit apprehensive about going out alone. Her 41 years old married daughter who lives nearby takes her to Epworth Hall.
Before our reporter left, Mrs Bramhall younger married daughter Mrs Joyce Pearson showed him a green rug which her mother had made and once again, it was difficult to realise when one examined its pattern that it had been made by someone who was totally blind.