It's funny but I always had the feeling Steve's Gran might have been his Dad's Mum, I suppose because she and Millie are quite disparaging about his Mum. But then there would have been no reason for them to have heard from Kathy if that had been the case. I'm sure Millie says Kathy went to pieces after Steve's Dad died which does suggest she couldn't cope without him or his support.
I was re-reading Cobblers Dream recently and was surprised to find that the whole of that scene from "Day in the Sun" is there, almost word for word in places. I'd completely forgotten. In that version the Aunt who looks after Paul's Gran is actually her sister-in-law, so Paul's great aunt. They are Paul's mother's family as far as I can tell. Certainly she has taken Paul back and forth to them during his childhood. The history of Paul's father is a bit less clear. He says his Mum told him his Dad was killed in an accident at the steel works when Paul was about two but that his Gran later let slip that he had walked out on them and that she had lived for years, looking over her shoulder for a "living ghost".
Now that's intriguing, I think I'm going to use that. Tho I'd prefer his relatives to be his paternal grandmother and auntie and, this being a fanfic, I guess I can take poetic licence...
Thanks for your help, everyone.
And, Loopy, it's way past time you wrote another story. I loved the holiday one.
