'Gran-Gran, curly hair and a return to my roots' by David X. Lewis

When I was 11, my great-grandmother came to stay with us. Gran-Gran, who was 90, had wispy white hair and brown teeth. She took cold baths daily and did exercises in the nude. She encouraged me to join her, but Mummy vetoed the idea. We were doing family trees at school, so I interviewed her. She said my curly black hair came from Giacomo, her grandfather. If Gran-Gran was one quarter Italian, that made me 1/32 Italian! Impressed by my Italian blood, my school-friends began calling me Luigi. So at 17 I went on an exchange trip to Venice. There I met Luisa, who took my nickname as an omen. Now we are married and expecting curly-haired children, one of each.