“I don’t know what a family is, how to define it, other than as a collection of people who bind themselves together and get weirder and weirder until no one understands them.”

Eddie Perfect, Comedian and Actor

Family. A conglomerate of individuals melded together. Some with blood ties others conscripted in through marriage. A family is an odd thing really. Evolving and changing throughout the years as death robs you and birth replenishes.

A family ebbs and flows during the calm and rants and raves during the storms but essentially through joys and challenges you are in it together. When others desert you family stands firm. Being part of a family means, no matter how much you may want to kill each other in private, when outsiders criticise you band together in a united front to protect your own.

The niceties you employ in polite society are often discarded in the presence of your family. It’s where you reveal the worst of yourself secure that these people know that deep down you are not the complete witch you are currently displaying.

The group develops its own language and customs. Nobody else understands “doing a Reg” refers to a now departed Grandfather with a short-temper or the humour of “has this got salt in it?”, referring to a row from the 80’s.

You grow up in one, you go on to create your own.

In the faces of your children you see reflections of the past. A smile that reminds you of your Grandmother. Eyes with a colour to match your Father.

There are good times, there are bad. There is security. There is love.