The Green Man, Eversholt

I'll take that on your good authority. You do well to remember me from those days.

I remember your photo, dear boy. You must have been all of two or three.

You remember taking it? I would have been too young then to be aware of your doing so.

But seriously - to subject a child, however cute, to forced physical intimacy, forcing him to kiss or let himself be kissed when he dislikes it, is (or was) child abuse, and to demand that he show affection (whether he feel it or not) to people to whom he merely happens to be related is mental abuse, and resentment of it can last a lifetime.

Then I must have been a seriously abused child, as I didn't feel affection for ANY of my relatives, but just accepted the kissing as part of the ritual. It wasn't the intimacy that bothered me, so much as the mouthful of stinky face powder, especially whilst not yet recovered from my car sickness.