She said yes and took the glasses off.

And I said, “My name is Hannah Doerr. I’m Walter Strand’s wife.”

Her hands stopped above the keyboard.

She did not say anything for about three seconds and then she said, very quietly, “Oh, sweetheart,” and came round the end of the counter and put her arms round me.

I stood in that with my handbag still on my shoulder and my arms at my sides, entirely rigid, in a county records office, being held by a stranger.

When she stepped back she was crying and I was not.