My Dad was a teacher. In 1946 he was teaching in a village school at the outskirts of Salonika, when the school was paid a visit by the then Queen of Greece, Frederica (the later King Constantine's Mum). Dad was responsible for welcoming her, organising some flowers and giving a speech. Photographs were duly taken, and there is one of him addressing the Queen, looking ever so serious and slightly-in-awe. That photo had pride of place in my parents' bedroom for years.

The thing is however that Frederica was well known for her fascist tendencies, and she was a meddlesome Queen and later Queen Mother. Some put her behind King Constantine's failed coup against the Colonels' junta in the 1970s. In any case, she was a hateful character. And my Dad was a Liberal Democrat all his life. Yet still he was proud of meeting the Queen and of that picture. It never made sense to me.

When he died, my Mum pressed that picture into my hands among other mementoes. I didn't really want it, but then I couldn't throw it away either, my Mum entrusted me with something SHE considered important.

So I keep it, no longer in a frame but in a folder, hidden away.