He kissed her lips this time. ‘Love you too, silly.’

Days passed. They visited the hospital and tried to get on with things. Em did go into work, at least for the mornings. There was nothing much else she could do, and the hanging about was worse than being busy. And she popped home to see Robbie and Norm when she could.

But she knew she was in the right place for the moment – with her own family. Violet was relieved to have her there. Though Joyce still lived at home, she and Violet had never been close and Joyce spent nearly all her time out with her boyfriend, Larry. Violet would have found it hard to be on her own at home just with Cynthia.

As the days passed, Bob showed very little sign of improvement and all they could do was wait and hope. They got through the evenings together, trying to distract themselves, but in the end there was only one topic of conversation and all of them were full of their memories.

‘I remember the first time I saw your dad,’ Cynthia said, as the three girls sat in the back room one evening, spinning out weak cups of tea. Now summer was here, they didn’t need to light the fire. They all knew this story, but they loved her telling it. ‘I’d moved out to get away from my stepmother . . .’ Her faced creased with bitterness. ‘Mom was dead – and Geoff, my brother, who was killed in the first war. Anything was better than living with her. I had a factory job, was earning my keep just about – no great hopes. Then I met your dad on the tram.’ Her lips curved up at the memory. ‘The way he was looking at me – oh, it makes me blush even now, thinking about it!’

‘Love at first sight,’ Violet said dreamily.

Cynthia got up, seeming to move more slowly, as if stunned and disorientated by what had happened. She fetched the old wedding photograph that had been sitting on the mantel for years. Two handsome faces smiled out of it, young and full of hopes.

‘Let’s see,’ Violet said. She drew the picture right up to her face.

‘For heaven’s sake, Vi,’ Em said. ‘I told you: you need to get some specs – look at you, squinting like that! I’m going to take you and make sure you get some.’

‘All right,’ Violet said, gazing at the picture. ‘You look so pretty, Mom.’

‘And happy,’ Joyce said, leaning in to look.

‘It was a happy day.’

The tears came without warning. She put her hands over her face. ‘Oh! I can’t stand seeing him like that!’

‘Oh, Mom,’ Violet said, starting to cry as well. These last years their mom had been like a rock, always there. They hated it when anything upset her: it shook them, bringing back the days when she had not been able to be there always, when she had been taken into hospital.