‘Oh my, that is dreadful,’ Betty said and stopped her crocheting. ‘My sister suffered with depression after her fourth child and it was just awful for her. And her husband, too. She couldn’t leave the house for a good few months and near became a zombie until the doctor prescribed some antidepressants to get her through the worst of it. And then she overhauled her diet and took up aerobics and got involved in all kinds of self-help therapies until she felt like her old self again.’

‘Oh dear.’ Grace shook her head, thinking of her own battle with depression after the split from Matthew. ‘I wonder if Connie was prescribed antidepressants too?’

‘I doubt it, dear. I don’t think there was as much awareness of PND – or any kind of mental illness – in those days. Folks tended to get on with it, best foot forward and all that, or at least they tried to. They didn’t have the kinds of therapies that they do these days. And with a war on, it would have been even more difficult for poor Connie. With no family to fall back on, she would have been all alone. I can’t imagine she would have been able to support herself and a baby without financial assistance. And who was going to give an unmarried mother of seventeen a job with a young baby in tow?’ Betty sighed despondently at the harshness of the situation for Connie. ‘They didn’t have the NHS or social housing or even any social security benefits back then,’ she added.

‘It’s terrible,’ Grace let out a long breath, ‘that she was punished for falling in love and just being young and naïve.’

A short silence followed as both women contemplated the heartache and loneliness that Connie must have endured, with nobody to turn to for help or advice.

‘So, just a thought … how come the teddy bear and knitted baby set are in the unit then?’ It was Betty that broke the silence.

‘I don’t know, but that’s a very good point. Surely they would have stayed with the baby,’ Grace said, turning more pages to see if there was another mention of baby Lara or the pink teddy bear, but the rest of the diary for 1940 was empty. So it was as if Connie’s life had stopped when the postnatal depression took hold and her parents coerced her into relinquishing the baby.