They say you are born with your family but you have to make your friends. Why restrict this to your own local community, town or even country? This story started by us 'adopting' older friends in York, who became like Grandparents to our children, and then 'adopting' their other 'adopted' family who happened to live in Muenster! From there it just grew.
I first came to York in 1970 to lecture at York University and met my partner in 1971. Having experienced University during the 60's our politics were left wing, anti-establishment and international. This lead us to engage with local politics in the community where our first home was situated, alongside York City Football Club ground.
After joining the local Labour Party we found that our Ward was the strongest Labour Ward in the Council that was largely due to an effective organisation (made up of a mix of older traditional members well versed in how to run local elections and younger ones able and willing to do the legwork) and dedicated Councillors who knew and listened to their voters. Chief among these were Councillor Ken Cooper and his wife Dolly whose house in the Ward was the meeting place for ordinary and voting day meetings.