Introduction

And I am your new Uncle Steve although some people call me Stephen, especially my Mum. I am Julian's elder brother and Ruth's brother-in-law. 

I live in England right in the middle of the country in a city called Oxford. 

I live in an old house and share it with my daughter Gemma and her man who is called Clive. Gemma's brother William lives nearby and we like to get together sometimes to have some beer and to chat about all sorts of things.

I used to be married but Gemma and William's mother got very sick a long time ago and the doctors could not make her better.

Sometimes we visit her sisters who both live in London who have two children each. They even came on holiday to France with us and everyone got on very well especially in the swimming pool.

I've been to your house a few times to help with the getting it a bit ready and to look after the cats and also for holidays. 

I like to do painting but I'm not as good as your new Dad and I like to play music but not as good as your new Mum.

I live a short drive up the motorway from Grandma and Grandad and I like to visit them at the week-ends and sometimes I help with little jobs like cutting the grass and the odd bit of decorating.

They both met before I was born when they lived in Oxford too but that was over fifty  ago.

When I was little we used to go on the bus to Oxford from our little village to visit Grandma's parents who were my Grandma and Grandpa and your Dad's Grandma and Grandpa. When we wanted to visit Grandad's Mum and Dad we had to go to London to visit them, but we would usually try and see Buckingham Palace to see if the Queen was at home and to watch the soldiers. If she was at home there would be a big flag flying but we never saw her even when it was.

There are quite a few old people in our family and quite a few that live right across the world. But we do like to get together to remember each other's birthdays and things like that.

You may find that coming to a large family is a bit scary. But none of us are scary really and we hope you will get to know who everyone is eventually.

I hope we meet soon and I'm very much looking forward to that.