The weathered headstones on the gently sloping hillside of Rhydwilym cemetery in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales, are smothered in ivy and lichen, mostly long forgotten. But one among them is stark and unmissable, with bright gold lettering on sharp black granite. Martha Mary Thomas, whom everyone called Patti, and her older brother, Griffith Morris Thomas, known as Griff, lived together at the farmhouse of Ffynnon Samson, in nearby Llangolman. They died there together, on 7 December 1976, when Patti was 70 and Griff was 73. They are buried together, in the same grave. On the day I visit, someone has left a posy of pink flowers for them, flattened against the dark stone by the driving rain.
Neither Patti nor Griff had married. They remained at Ffynnon Samson, the Thomas family home, all their lives. Their father died in 1967, leaving them alone together when they were in their 60s. The farm had earned them a good living, but they lived frugally on their pensions, spending their time at Rhydwilym chapel, and looking after their garden.
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