As time passed, Vera’s condition improved. Marjorie could see her mother gain strength in her legs and she could stand for longer. She could cross the living room floor with a stick. She maintained she still needed the wheelchair to go outside. She refused to even try. ‘Do you want me to break a hip?’ she asked.

‘Of course not, if you’re going to break something make it your neck,’ Marjorie said, and Vera laughed. It was the first time Marjorie had seen her laugh in years. She laughed so much, she snorted and it was catching – Marjorie laughed, too.

‘That was a good one,’ Vera said when she finally stopped, then she squeezed her daughter’s arm.

‘Thank you,’ she said, and Marjorie nearly had a stroke of her own.

Davey was worried about his mother; he asked Marjorie to go and visit her, so she did. Molly didn’t look like herself: her hair was perfect, her nails painted and she looked healthy, but there was something off that Marjorie could not quite put her finger on. They sat together in the kitchen, drinking tea and sharing a doughnut. Molly admitted how sad she was.

‘I miss her voice,’ Molly said.

‘I hear it all the time,’ Marjorie said.

‘She talks to you?’

‘All the time.’

Molly looked like she might burst into tears. ‘She talks to Grace, her da, Davey and Juliet, too, but not me. I try, Marjorie, but she won’t talk to me.’

Marjorie didn’t know what to do so she just hugged her tight. ‘Who loves ya, Molly?’ she said.

‘Marjorie does,’ Molly said, and she smiled a warm smile to let Marjorie know that that woman she knew was still there, behind all that pain. ‘Now, tell me about that lunatic you have for a mother.’

Marjorie told her everything and Molly listened quietly, offering no words.

‘Say something,’ Marjorie said.

‘Your mother is a narcissist, she’ll bleed you dry if you let her,’ Molly said. ‘No home help no matter how experienced will be good enough for her as long as you pick up the slack when they’re not there. I know from my own experience, love. Do what you have to. Cut the cord.’

‘That’s good advice.’

‘Well, easier said than done. I hope the auld one doesn’t take a gun to you,’ Molly said.

The very next day Marjorie walked into her mother’s home, and before the woman could even get a word out Marjorie laid down the law.

‘The next care assistant that walks through this door, you’ll be nice and polite and you will mind your manners. You will not be a bitch. You will be respectful and grateful and you will be glad of their help.’

‘I don’t need their help, I have you,’ Vera said.