On one occasion when he appeared on the Johnny Carson chat show in the US, he had it written into his contract that he wouldn’t answer questions about Sigmund. Carson obviously sensed a story and asked the grandfather question, so my dad answered at length about his mother’s father, who had been a banker in Berlin.

Maintaining these living legacies has a lot of meaning for me.

These same living plants were nourished and loved by my Mom through her life.

What a great remembrance...

I have dappled morning begonias, one of which is in bloom while another is … not doing so well. The cuttings idea is interesting, though, especially because it produces clones — maybe I'll start propagating the best ones!

There is a Christmas cactus and a money tree, They were rescued from shrivelled nubs to the point where I've propagated at least twice.

But the thing that strikes me about this article is that such a powerful feud really does trickle down the generations.

Good or bad, we are all partial copies of our ancestors, good or bad.