I want to describe the cottage, because it matters.

We had bought the property in Greenwich six years earlier, largely because Antonia loved it and partly because it had a small two-bedroom cottage at the end of the drive that had been a chauffeur’s flat in about 1930.

It sat empty for four years.

When Corinne’s situation changed — and I will get to what her situation actually was — Toni asked whether her mother could take it, and I said yes without thinking about it for more than a minute, and I have thought about that minute a great deal since.

I said yes because it was obviously the right thing, because Toni was worried about her, and because it made my wife happy in a way I had not seen for a while.