I didn’t see the old me, the past me or the present me. If anything, all I saw was a woman I barely recognised bruised and battered and covered head to toe in my own blood. I didn’t feel any compassion for the woman staring back at me, nor did I feel any love.

I just felt nothing. I was numb.

I stared at myself hard and tried to see inside my inner soul. Who was this dishevelled wretch staring back at me in the mirror? Where was my life heading now, because this is not what I had planned for myself at all?

I started to weep, silently at first, then a whole river of unwept tears arose in my chest, and I couldn’t hold it back. I dropped to the bathroom floor and sobbed like a little child. Years of grief had encapsulated my body and had