I explained who I was and why I was there…for a while there was silence, and I could visibly see her hand shaking in terror. She asked me if anyone had come with me especially my husband and I answered diligently and honestly no. The old lady took a while to think things through and then began to remove the safety latch and let me inside.

She invited me into the living room and as I sat on the sofa, I glanced around to see photographs I recognised resting on the side tables and the mantelpiece with the young child who was my husband’s son. They were similar photographs to the ones I had seen in my husband’s shoebox, but they hadn’t aged, there was no new photographs which I thought was odd. The old lady went into the kitchen to make us both a cuppa whilst I sat there wondering what she must have