“Dad made this.” Dan gave it a small push. The little horse rocked back and forth. “I used to love this horse. I’d forgotten all about it.”

“Rowena had a box of your baby treasures. Look at this.” Paula directed him back towards the chair and chest of drawers she had put in the opposite corner. “She said your grandmother knitted this.”

The baby shawl was draped over the chair. Dan picked up a corner of it.

“There were all kinds of bits in the box.” Paula handed him a money box she had put on top of the drawers with some of the other baby memorabilia.

Dan held it gingerly in his large hands.

“And there’s this cute little wind-up toy.” She twisted the mechanism and sat it back on the cupboard, where it wobbled and chimed out a tune.

Dan shook his head. “I don’t remember any of this stuff.”

“It must have been packed away when you were still young.”

“Yes. Probably when my mother died. Evidently Dad got rid of a lot of things then.”

Paula hesitated. She wasn’t sure how he would react to the last item she had to show him. “There was something else in the box.” She slid open the top drawer of the chest and lifted out a small photo frame. “I found an envelope with some photos in it. I put this one in a frame.”

Dan took it from her hand. She watched his reaction as he peered at the photo. His face was set in a serious mask and he turned and carried the frame closer to the window, where the light was better.

“I thought all the photos of my mother were gone,” he said softly. “I presume this is her.”

Paula came and stood beside him. “There were a few different photos in the packet of you as a baby but that was the best one.”

There had been baby clothes in the bottom of the box. They were in various sizes and smelled of mothballs. Most had yellow stains and, apart from the fact they had been Dan’s, Paula hadn’t thought they’d be much use. It was the treasure contained in the envelope that had been tucked among them that was so precious. She wondered who had packaged up the photos and put them in the box.

Dan was silent and continued to study the photo in his hands. Paula had chosen it to put in the frame because it was the only photo in the envelope of Dan with both his parents. On the back someone had written ‘Daniel and Amanda with Dan, one week old’.

“They look very happy,” Paula said.

Dan ran his finger down the frame.

“Your mother was very attractive.”

“I don’t remember her.” He looked up. “Rowena’s the only mother I know.”

Paula brushed quickly at the tears brimming in her eyes. They seemed to flow easily these days.