I just wanted to share a few short anecdotes from our family about Rhodri and Julie as well. One cherished story in our family is: long before Rhodri had ever become a public figure, in their early relationship, Julie took Rhodri up to meet my grandparents in a little cottage on a hill above Swansea. My grandmother was a very sociable Welsh mam and would have been full of tea and Welsh cakes, but my grandfather not so much. He could be a little judgmental perhaps, and very firm in his views and beliefs.

So, my father called a little afterwards, perhaps with a little trepidation, to see how the visit had gone and was astonished to find my grandfather said that he was ‘all right’—a little pause—‘yes, he’s all right’, and then, on his way out of the house, my grandmother leaning forward and saying, ‘He passed very high, very high’. I’ve never asked Julie about her version of that story, but it’s a cherished one in the family.

Then, of course, as time went on, Rhodri and Julie became much more public figures, but still always had the time to share with the family and to come to family occasions and be hospitable in Cardiff or come down to Swansea and be hospitable. The whole family cherishes the spirited discussions that ranged right from autism at the last lunch, in the family and in Wales as a wider thing, to the labyrinthine family connections of who was related to who, and sleeping with who, and not sleeping with who, or divorced from who, and so on, that Rhodri could effortlessly span, the intricate details of Cardiff and Swansea local politics, which he also seemed to have a labyrinthine knowledge of, extraordinarily, and then, even more astonishing, my father mentioning something that had happened in Canada—a spirited and in-depth discussion about Canadian politics, and the relationship of Welsh mining to Canadian mining, and so on. I’m not telling you anything you didn’t know about Rhodri. He seemed to know everything about everything. He had the time and the energy to give to people, and Julie alongside him. They were very kind to my family when my father was ill, taking the time and trouble to support us. They will be sadly missed. We loved them dearly, and my deepest condolences to Julie and the family.