COE, ADAM (1900 – 1975) - While my Grandfather Sneddon had a positive influence on my development, I had less empathy with my father's side of the family. Playing board games with my siblings and Grandfather Coe, he habitually penalised me for offences ranging from gloating, gamesmanship and reckless dice use, improvised rules not applied to anybody else. Later, exhibiting symptoms inherited by Dad, he pushed me down the stairs, an incident still disputed by some of my relatives who remain embittered by the fact that, having been injured by our grandfather, I was particularly favoured in his will. My cousin Pamela, occasionally refers to me as being as ‘maladroit as a cow on skates', a neat enough turn of phrase which fails to take into account the fact that, before my equilibrium was offset by my tumble I was, in fact, excessively nimble and more than capable of negotiating my way between two points without hurtling myself into the first obstacle. Of course, incidents like this feature in any childhood. We've stopped regarding them with any sort of perspective. At the height of his marriage problems, Spencer, encouraged by some idiotic counsellor he'd been consulting, made some inferences about advances made toward him by our Uncle Gibby that, I'm sure, were designed to forever release him from responsibility for his own behaviour. As is often the case with Spencer, this was followed by second thoughts (after Gibby confronted him at our mother's funeral) and a grovelling retraction. By the same token would be easy for me to retreat from life. My own grandfather tried to kill me, after all. This was hardly a vote of confidence. As anyone who knows me will attest, though, I have persevered.

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