My parents had many distant relatives most of whom I couldn’t trace their lineage on our family tree. There were quite a large number of aunties, uncles, cousins we couldn’t really fit into the picture. To us they were family and it had to stay that way.

I was around 8 when a distant elderly cousin of my dad visited. She lived with her daughter in a different part of the country. She stayed for a few days, however, she asked my parents if I could come with her to spend the rest of the summer holiday with her grandchildren when she was ready to leave.