Iris Kathleen Owens (Mum) – A Eulogy by Delphine Hodgson
Today I am attempting to do what Iris (Mum) did through most of her life, that is to cram an awful lot of things into a finite timeframe! Please bear with me as I take you on a journey that covers the highlights of her life.
Iris (Mum) was born in 1940, she was a ‘war baby’, she was adopted at an early age by Ethel and Arthur Radley and came to live in Cardiff and she always regarded herself as Welsh despite being born in England.
Iris had an idyllic childhood in Halisbury Road, Canton with adoring parents, lovely neighbours and lots of friends and interests. Everyone was thrilled when she passed the 11+ and went to Cardiff High School for Girls where she combined her studies with membership of various clubs including swimming and the orchestra.
At 17 she wanted to see more of the world and secured a place in the Civil Service in London where she got day release to do her A levels. Mum has always written about her life experiences in some shape or form and some of her experiences of the Civil Service hostel accommodation, the evening jobs such as working in restaurant kitchens and the characters she met make hilarious reading!
After she had taken her A levels she gave into her wanderlust and travelled to Switzerland, Germany and France taking on various jobs to support her adventures.
Rather than coming back to the UK to study, she enrolled at the Alliance Francais in Paris where people from all over the world came to learn how to teach French as a foreign language – French was their only common language so they needed to become fluent pretty quickly! Iris was sociable and gregarious and made lots of new friends from all cultures and nationalities. She lived in various rooms (most of them extremely cold and basic) supported herself by a series of jobs which she again graphically documented in her writings. She met my father, Zoran Stevanovitch and they formed a lively and passionate relationship. However, the party was soon to end when Mum found herself pregnant with me and came home to the safe haven of Halisbury Road and her lovely mother.
Being an unmarried mother really wasn’t the ‘done thing’ in 1960’s South Wales, but they held their heads up high and got on with life.
Mum picked herself up and worked as a teacher in what she described as “Tin Pot Private Schools” that were of varying educational standards and existed primarily to massage the egos of aspiring social-climbers. She changed her name to Iris Stevanovitch and wore a ring so it was assumed that she was married (this was necessary in those days).
While she was teaching she met a man who seemed charming and caring and they started a relationship, money was tight as neither job paid well and terms and conditions of employment were pretty atrocious. Things got even tighter when Mum realised that she was pregnant. We left the safe haven of Halisbury Road and moved into a flat in Maughan Terrace in Penarth that would definitely be declared unfit for human habitation today. There was very little state support in those days, you just had to get on with it!
After my brother Rob was born Mum once again pulled herself together, arranged childcare and got herself back into the workplace.
By the early 70’s things had improved financially and Mum got a job in Wales Gas. The family moved a step up the property ladder and bought a house in Lisvane Street, Cathays. In order to pay the bills and mortgage they rented rooms out to students. It was hard to balance the books each month and I remember buying lots of food from the budget range in Fine Fare and saving every Green Shield stamp until we had enough books to get stuff from the catalogue. Rob’s father turned out to be pretty useless in many ways, including money management, so it all came down to Mum. Every penny counted and on the rare occasions that we had a Mars Bar, it was cut into slices and shared among the family (you had to move quickly to get the coveted end bits!)
Mum had started in quite a lowly position in the Drawing Office in Wales Gas, but before long her willingness to learn and her enthusiasm led to her move into a role in O & M aka ‘Productivity Services’. She was taken on at the same time as the graduate intake and was therefore about a decade older than the rest. This would not have bothered her as throughout her life she was never phased by other people’s ideas about what you should and shouldn’t do and when you should and shouldn’t do it!
The Manager of O & M was a funny clever man called Haydn Owens, before too long he and Mum realised that they wanted to make a life together. I remember Haydn telling me that when he asked Mum if she would do this, she replied “well, all three of us come as a package deal”.
In 1975 we moved to Creigiau to a new house and a new start. Mum also had to get a new job as she couldn’t really be living with her boss! She moved into the Training Department and approached this with her usual enthusiasm and energy.
You might think that having a demanding job and family life would mean there wasn’t much time for other interests but during this time she was also a Trade Union Representative and a member of the Keep Fit Association of Wales. As ever, she was a very active participant, never one to sit quietly in the background letting other people get on with it!
Life continued through the 80’s with family, work and interests. We had amazing camping holidays in Spain and France all four of us, a large frame tent and all the equipment crammed into whatever the family car was at the time – happy days!
In 1990, after 25 years in Wales Gas the opportunity for Voluntary Redundancy came up and Mum took it with both hands. “I want to do something completely different!” she said and so she retrained as a Coach Driver and took her PSV.
She worked at this for several years for private coach companies including Creigiau Travel. She also became actively involved with PHAB (a charity for Physically Handicapped and Able Bodied). Her various driving adventures were captured in ‘The Nut Behind The Wheel’ which was published under a pseudonym on Smashwords.
During this time Haydn and Mum enjoyed many holidays including Russia, Jordan, Egypt, America, and Turkey – seeing the world!
For a while Haydn accompanied Mum on many of her driving trips but after a while he finally succumbed to Alzheimers and eventually after he had been on after one too many midnight jaunts around Taffs Well, Mum finally admitted defeat and Haydn went into a care home. It was very sad as he once had such a sharp mind.
Once again, Mum took stock of life and embarked on a new challenge when she enrolled on a degree course at the University of Wales in Pontypridd.
In 2004 at the age of 64 she obtained a BA First class honours degree in English. Rob and I were bursting with pride at her graduation!
2004 also saw the death of Zoran in February and Haydn in November.
Mum then took the Post Graduate Adult Teaching Certificate in 2005 embarked on two new challenges – she started work in Ystrad Mynach College as an English Language teacher and purchased a house in Ystrad. The house was completely remodelled with the help of Rob, his friends and the builders. She taught in Ystrad College for 5 years (primarily teaching Arab students from the UAE).
The next few years she worked part time tutoring ‘English As A Foreign Language’ to EFL teachers and doing one to one tuition for business execs who were working in South Wales and wanted to improve their English. She also carried out research on History in the Rhymney Valley for Exeter University.
She had a bit more time to spend on her other interests which included:
• Going to Romania with the Smiles Foundation to help people in extreme poverty
• The Children of Chenobyl charity
• Learning Welsh and Latin
• The Labour Party
• The Church in Wales
• The Well of Hope (Moriah Christian Fellowship) – including the paradise run to feed the homeless
• Walking camping and canoeing
• History (especially the Gelligaer Historical Society)
Recently Mum published a book called ‘Cut to the Heart’ about a murder in Pontlottyn in the 1920’s.
All this while being a fantastic Grandma to Tash and Kimmy and a source of fun and support for Rob and I.
A couple of years ago Mum ended up almost by accident in Llancaiach Fawr Manor where she was helping out with the Urdd event. She phoned me up afterwards and was completely buzzing about the place! Llancaiach is a lovely Tudor manor house where you can meet and talk to the characters who lived in those times. Mum started volunteering there and began to learn about the various roles and characters. A permanent relief position as a Historic Interpreter became available and Mum applied for it (via a competency based interview) and, at the age of 75, was successful.
She was delighted! It bought together so many of her passions including history, Welsh and of course, her love of performing!
Throughout her life Mum has flown in the face of negative stereotypes, in fact she saw them as a challenge! If there was anything guaranteed to drive her on to success it would be someone saying “Why are you doing that…….at your age??”
Her caring nature and positive energy made her a fantastic Mum and Grandma as we found ourselves carried along on many of her various adventures. Tash and Kimmy have many happy and off-the-wall memories of adventures with Grandma!
She was also very loyal and appreciated her friends, several times over the years she said to me “I have some really lovely friends”, I have found this observation to be true and have been very touched to share the thoughts and memories of Mum with so many of her friends.
Iris crammed so much into her life and into every waking moment but there was always something new and exciting that she wanted to do. Sadly now, I won’t find out what new direction she may have chosen and what lovely friends she would have made along the way.
All I can do is give thanks for the life that she led and for the positive impact she had on so many of the people that she met and who loved her for the amazing person that she was

Thankyou