It's an old relationship of well over forty years' duration when two young men in university made a fast bond of friendship. I met him sporadically over the years. Of course since I am thirteen years older than my youngest brother, the age-gap meant that we didn't socialize, so it was at odd times we might come across one another and certainly not frequently. The last time was at my mother's funeral. And that itself was almost twenty years ago.

My brother's nearest and closest friend and my brother didn't share university classes. My brother became a scientist and his friend a lawyer. He was a flamboyant young man, tall and slender, and cut a dashing figure particularly when he affected a cape. He shares, to some degree, my brother's overt and always-a-quip-at-the-ready humour, I believe.

So when our granddaughter expressed more than passing interest in this friend of one of her grand-uncles and wistfully imagined meeting him, I thought it interesting. And then in a conversation yesterday she went so far as to mention the man again with the thought that it might be helpful to her in a guidance-mentoring way if she were to be actually introduced to him.

I said I would speak with my brother about it. Instead, I wrote an email directly to this friend of my brother's, introducing the idea of a possible connection. I informed him of her age, that she is a university student and planning to achieve a law degree. Her interest just happens to be the practise of criminal law. And he is a lawyer specializing in criminal law.

And he responded swiftly in the affirmative. And now the rest is up to my granddaughter.