Digital Story from the Bawso Stories Project. In her story "Slate Heart", inspired by a visit to the National Slate Museum, Annie compares her life's journey to the process of shaping slate that she saw demonstrated at the museum.

English transcript: The slate museum was marvellous, it was nice. The man who was doing the slating, then they told us, the rocks came from there. When I went outside I looked at the hill somewhere, then I was thinking about my life, yeah, I look at it, the edge and the man told us these things come from there. I just was like, the way he was cutting the rocks. When you get a rock and you do not admire the rock, according to me. But that man, the way he was cutting it, he was making some things very beautiful. I thought about it. I started my life when, then I was like a rock. Nobody could admire me because I had so much stress.

Then I came to UK, and I had to pick myself again. Then I got a problem, I had cancer. My life, the way here, this is rocks, they are shapeless. Then somebody came, that man, the rocks were taken and the man started shaping it and said something very nice. Although I had the stoma, I remembered I was given a heart, you see, this didn’t break my heart. Then I look at the rocks where they say the rocks are from rockery, I could see these rocks then they take the rocks, they shape them. It was so lovely, yeah.