A funny but slightly weird moment from my past (there are many). My grandpas 80th birthday just over a decade ago and I was 28 at the time. A party of about 20-30 or so people were invited, mostly people I didn’t know apart from a few relatives. The seating was all prepared, Grandma had decided to put me next to an old friend who worked in recruitment, because I had too. I guess she thought it would give us something to talk about. That friend of theirs however, went straight in with a different line of questioning I was not expecting. He asked about my parent, thinking it was my uncle but obviously realised it possibly wasn’t to ask about it, when I confirmed he wasn’t, he was shocked and slightly confused. I had to say that my father was the youngest son. None of these friends knew about the second son it turns out. The conversation didn’t get noticed round the table, but I suspect it was probably talked about after when he went home! It was an odd feeling to have to explain myself and where I fit in the family, but it was also strange to know their friends didn’t know they had a second son. If you just don’t tell people, they don’t know, and by this right, they had removed the rogue element in their story.

Ah, if only it were that easy…

(c) K Wicks