While she never found love in the form of a companion and soulmate, Ceana ended up becoming a short-term foster carer. Taking in children requiring emergency placement, she found her true vocation. Eventually, she also offered respite care to parents and families with a disabled child. She was an active fundraiser for a local charity supporting the cause and was well respected by the community at large for the work she did.

At the age of seventy-eight, Ceana was awarded an OBE. She was quoted as saying it was ‘Very nice’, but the only thing that mattered to her was being able to make a difference. The love she received in return from people of all ages was reward enough and she considered herself to have been blessed with a rich and happy life.

Pierce

Pierce recruited a new deputy manager after Ceana returned to Scotland. Sadie Marchant knew she had big shoes to fill. But she didn’t just achieve that, she also stole Pierce’s heart. They became not only a strong management team but also husband and wife.

Their twins were born five years later and they asked Nico and Fern to be godparents. Whenever Karl and Kyla disappeared, everyone knew they would be in Nico’s studio, paintbrushes in hand, daubing away. Throughout their lives, they remained close with Nico and Fern’s daughter, Olivia, and often reminisced about their childhood and the wonderful times they had shared at The Haven.

Dee-Dee and Odile

When a very special relationship began to grow between these two very different ladies, no one was really surprised. They had much in common after all; both were talented in what they did and inspired many visitors to continue on after their first experiences of working with textiles and clay at The Haven.

But Dee-Dee was always the over-the-top personality and Odile the quieter one. As time passed, they formed a bond that would one day see them living as a couple and becoming firm favourites with visitors of all ages.

They eventually retired to a little cottage on the outskirts of the Bois-Saint-Vernon, where they lived quite happily until their deaths, some six months apart.

Patricia

When the love of your life dies, nothing is ever quite the same again, but Patricia knew that Fred was with her always. Her fate was to live until the age of ninety-one.

Stefan remained by her side, although they were only ever friends. They travelled far and wide together in that smart, shiny black motorhome.

For more than ten years, every August they returned to The Haven for a week’s stay and their word-of-mouth endorsement helped a lot of people discover it for the first time.