My nephew’s name is Harold Mark Bowles, to be known as Harry. I assume the Mark is after my brother. No idea about the Harold/Harry.

I said before that my mother was very excited at becoming a grand­moth­er. Here’s the proof: take a look at the huge smile on her face.

On Christmas Day, she was trying to decide what her new title was to be. She was really pleased at becoming a granny, but not at all eager to be known as “Granny”. She tried out “Nan Et” (Et for Ethna), which we promptly turned into “Nanette”. “Gran Et” was even worse: with a strong Dublin accent it becomes “Granite”. She has decided that she will be known as “Nana”.

My grand­moth­er Reilly was known to us all as “Gam”. It’s my fault. I was the oldest grandchild and I couldn’t say “Gran”, so I called her “Gam”—and it stuck. Almost. Some of our cousins hereti­cal­ly called her “Gan”. I was de­fin­i­tive­ly wrong, dammit!