Emma Darwin's new book

arrived in the post  yesterday and the Senior Cat promptly took it from me. He did not get a lot else done. He says I'll like it - a lot.
I am sure I will.
You see Emma and I have something in common, just as Christopher Milne and I had something in common.  I haven't yet met Emma - although it would be good to meet her.
But let me start at the beginning.  I am someone's daughter and somebody else's granddaughter. I have even, on some occasions, been somebody's great-granddaughter - and yes, the street is named after him.  Of course I am also "that person who writes the letters to the paper" and "the person who..."
And I am Cat... I am me.
As a kitten I was almost always introduced as "This is ...... 's grand/daughter." Small kittens usually are known like this but, for me and my siblings, this has continued into adult life.
We live in a small city. Fifty years ago it was even smaller. People did know one another. You didn't need to be terribly well known to be widely known.
My paternal grandfather was well known. He was a tailor but he wasn't just anyone's tailor. My grandfather was a specialist. He made uniforms, uniforms for the governors of the state. They were military men back then. He also made uniforms for the sea captains. There were sea captains who would wait until they docked in the port and then visit my grandfather. He would measure, cut, tack, fit and send them on their way in the time they were in port and then, when they next visited the final fitting and finishing would be done. It was stressful work. 
My grandfather's work lasted for years. The Senior Cat still has the Harris Tweed jacket his father made for him in 1947 - the year he got married. It has been relined a number of times. It does look a little worse for wear now but it can still be worn. I know of one person who still has a suit my grandfather made for him in the 1960's.  "It didn't fit when I put on weight but I can wear it again now - but just for funerals these days." Right.
But Grandpa had an impact in other ways too. He was not merely "a tailor". He was very active in church and community. He was fiercely proud of his Scots heritage and led the Caledonian Society and, like his mother before him, all the social welfare work that went with it. At a time when Presbyterians and Catholics barely spoke to one another he was instrumental in bringing them together. He knew people from all over the world, from all faiths and backgrounds, at a time when the word "multi-cultural" was unknown to the community at large. Not so long ago I did some work for a man who lives in another country and, as we finished it, in his last email to me he asked,"I've been meaning to ask are you by any chance related to....  My grandfather...." and the answer was "Yes, he was my grandfather."
So yes, I am still his granddaughter. I am also the Senior Cat's daughter. He's the one who did this and that and something else in the education system....I'll leave it at that.
A long time ago when I was in London and we went to visit some schools outside it a friend took me and a couple of others in her car. On the way back she told the other two,
    "I have to stop at a bookshop. I need to pick up something from a friend. Cat, it's someone you need to meet."
And so we went into the bookshop and my friend H.... said to the man in there, "I want you to meet Cat... she is and she is not .....'s daughter. She can answer your question about...."
The man turned out to be Christopher Robin Milne. Her way of introducing me was quite deliberate. He was not at all fond of being someone else's child. 
I am proud of the Senior Cat, of his father, of his father's father. I don't mind in the least that I am related to them. They are and were good people. They have all had a larger than usual impact on the community.
But yes, I am me too. On Sunday morning there was a phone call from another state. Someone was looking for a man I happen to know. He was a policeman. We share the same surname. He belongs to another branch of the family. I have no idea where he lives now but the person at the other end suddenly said,
    "Oh, I'm sorry you must be..."
Yes. I am. But - I am me too. I am not the letters I have written. I am Cat.
And, while Emma is obviously and justifiably proud of her family she is also Emma, a person in her own right. Christopher was not "just Christopher Robin" but a person in his own right.
As Ms W once said,
    "I am me and nobody else is me."