ABSTRACT
I am in a different position to all the other contributors to this volume. Some may also be step-mothers, even step-grandmothers, but they are all mothers (if not yet grandmothers). I will almost certainly never be a mother and I will therefore never be a ‘real’ grandmother. My husband has two sons from one marriage and two daughters from another and he has five grandchildren, with another one due in the summer of 2000. I am therefore a step-grandmother and it is a relationship which gives me enormous pleasure. My stepchildren might be surprised to know that I consider their children to be of central importance in my life.
