Yes, it was. Becca’s pictures probably brought comfort to the children. And to Jack. She remembered how much it had hurt her when her aunt had packed away all the photographs of her mother. Looking at them will make you unhappy. Remind you she’s gone. Photographs simply kept the past alive.

Flora had sneaked a photograph under her mattress. She’d looked at it every night and it had comforted her. Knowing that, how could she blame the children for wanting pictures of Becca on the walls?

She thought about Izzy.

“Do your teenagers cook and do a lot around the house?”

Julia gave a shout of laughter. “Are you kidding? I can’t even get them to put a plate in the dishwasher without a fight.”

“Izzy ran the house. She didn’t seem like a typical teenager.”

“A teenager is a unique and unpredictable animal. They adapt to their surroundings.” Julia frowned. “Which, now that I think about it, is probably the definition of a virus, too. Go figure. Even after they leave home you feel the aftereffects.”

Her friend always managed to make her smile.

“She cooked. From scratch. Homemade burgers. Veggie. She even toasted the buns.”

“And she’s seventeen?” Julia’s eyes widened. “Color me impressed. Lucky you.”

She didn’t feel lucky. She’d been so positive that she could make this work, that she could help, but she’d blown any chance of that by mentioning her mother.

Should she tell Julia about that? No, because then questions would follow. Questions Flora didn’t want to answer. And she didn’t want to admit to her stupid fantasy of showing up like Mary Poppins and transforming their lives.

She forced her mind back to work. “We need to scrub out these buckets and change the water.”

“This job is all glamor. I’ll scrub the buckets, you deal with the flowers and cut the stems. You’re so good at that part. I mangle everything I touch.” Julia picked up a bucket. “It seems to me that it went really well. I’m no psychologist, but it could have been a disaster. Those kids have had massive change forced upon them. They’re trying to adjust, and then their dad brings home another woman. That could have gone badly.”

It had gone badly.

“Mmm.”

“You could have felt the need to compete with the dead wife.”

“Trust me, there is no competing. Becca has already won hands down.” That, at least, she could be honest about. “She’s the Becca, of Becca’s Body.”

“Oh wow, I took one of her classes once. I needed a month of physio to recover.”

“According to Izzy, everything she did, she did brilliantly.”

Julia emptied out the old water and cleaned the bucket. “She loved her mother. We see those we love through rose-tinted glasses.”

Or Izzy could have been exaggerating to make her feel small and insecure.