“You do not live your life to shut other people’s mouths.

You have grieved honestly and you have raised that little girl and you deserve whatever happiness you can find.

Let them talk.

Talk never buried anybody, and love outlasts every whisper.” I have kept that particular kindness folded away with the good memories, apart from everything that soured.

She meant it as a comfort, and I took it as one, that day.

Teresa had always had that gift, of saying the plain steadying thing at the moment you most needed steadying, and I had leaned on it more than once in my widowhood.