How I found out.  Chapter 5: Scotland

"The village I come from, said Bobby, is very pretty.  It's surrounded by the sea."  I can't swim, I said.  "You can't swim?" said Bobby in amazement.  No, I said, the sea's so big and frightening.  "No it's not, said Bobby, I love the sea, it's part of me.  I'll show you not to be frightened of the sea, said Bobby, I'll show you how to love the sea." 

I didn't see the sea then, but last week I went to Scotland by Easyjet, and Bobby's village was beautiful, surrounded by water with dolphins and sealions, a pretty old fishing village with lilac blossoms hanging heavily over garden walls, the smell of flowers intermingling with the smell of seaweed as I walked in the early morning through the winding empty streets. 

One of the oldest residents told me that that line of the family had died out, and another elderly lady said that she knew the family very well.  A lovely family, she said: the grandfather came to live with them when the father went to the war.  I still have no photographs of Bobby, but I've been to where she came from.

How I found out: Huntington's Disease. 6