It’s completely unfair and it’s still true, and you’re going to have to take it, because it’s what’s left.”

Then she picked the pins back up, which was a kindness, because it meant I did not have to be looked at.

She said: “You want to know what we’ve actually got?

Because I think you keep looking at it and seeing a failed version of something else.

“We’ve got a nine-year-old who has four adults who show up.

That is an enormous amount.

Most kids I know have got two and a half.

“You and I are going to be talking on the phone about that child until one of us is dead.

We’re going to do his graduation and his wedding and whatever the thing is when he’s thirty and it all goes wrong for a bit.

I’m going to be in your life for forty more years.