My close family is my grandfather and grandmother. Except, I’d call them Nan and Pop. It was just a thing I did.

When I was a little younger, my family lived close to their house. A short walk away and we’d be there, and we’d see Nan and Pop and stick around and watch tv and play games. Except, instead of just doing that, sometimes I’d see Pop doing work, and Nan cleaning or helping us out.

Now, I didn’t know it much at the time, but Pop taught me a lot. He showed me his favourite tin of liquorice ( He always shared a little with me; I got the taste for it from him.), and he showed me how to play chess. He was one of the best chess players I’d seen at the time, but it’s harder to remember for the moment.

Nan was always beautiful; she had beautiful hair, dark and pretty curly.

He was always around, and I’d always hug him. He had that weird smell that old people had, but I never really cared about it. He wasn’t towering and huge, but he was tall and had a large belly.

Christmas was great over there, Nan and Pop would always be happy. We were either at their house or out on the canal, looking at the Christmas lights. Either way, Christmas was great. Presents everywhere, walks over to a hill (We went there to take the dog for a walk and to run around.)

Pop showed us how to use the crab nets to catch fresh crabs from the canal, which we sometimes ate at the house. We sometimes fished with him, too.

One day, we got a new dog. She was an Alaskan Malamute, but only a puppy. And I’ve got to say, she caused a mess in our house. Ruining carpets next to beds, running around and howling whenever she liked. We couldn’t do anything about it in the end, but then Nan and Pop came along. They took her in, and within a week she still howled, but became a whole lot less trouble.

We moved away after a while, away from Madurah. Too polluted, a bit diseased, and too harsh for our family. Moving had two sides; We weren’t sick anymore. We instantly lost colds and fevers moving away. But the bad side was; our cousins, family, Nan and Pop, and other relatives, were away.

This meant visits down there were very rare. It was hours and hours away; we were lucky to see them twice a year. So this meant visits up and down were treasured deeply. Seeing Nan and Pop was always a dream; we walked up the hill, now walking their new dog, (Her name was Snow; she was a great big dog, but wouldn’t hurt a fly. Unless you were another dog.). Everything was good.