‘Ma, sommat happened that I had naw control of and, if I tell you, you’ll get upset. You’ve enough on your plate. It’s gone now – it’s in the past, and I won’t let it happen again.’

‘Well, if you had naw control, how is it that you’re sure you will have control if it does happen again? Were it to do with a man?’

Rosie knew from old that to try to keep anything from her ma was a losing battle. ‘I fell in love, Ma.’

‘Is that all? By, luv, that’ll happen a few times afore you’re done. Who is he, and will I like him? He ain’t naw doctor, is he, as some of them are a bit above us, Rosie.’

‘Naw, he were a German pilot and . . . Oh, Ma, he – he died.’

The shock on her ma’s face was gone in an instant as other emotions took their place, and Rosie could see she was fighting an inner battle. Without an unkind bone in her body, her ma would have been in a quandary as to what to say, as it was, but her promise to accept all and be there for Rosie would be very difficult for her in these circumstances.

‘It’s all right, Ma. I knaw as you wouldn’t have liked it and are probably glad that he died, but you can’t say so, for hurting me. I didn’t want to tell you. I . . . Oh, Ma, it hurts. The pain’s so deep, I don’t knaw as I’ll ever get to be me again.’

‘Awe, Rosie lass. Come here and have a hug. That you should fall in love with one of them as are killing our lads, I can’t understand, but the pain of losing the man you love, I can. There’s nowt like it, and it’s a long battle back. I loved your da, so I knaw. But I’ve also come out the other side and found, not only love, but meself again. I knaw as it don’t feel like it, but you will do the same, me little lass. You will.’

The love her ma surrounded her with helped Rosie. Aye, she would have liked her ma to say that she would have accepted Albie, but she’d known that wasn’t going to happen. ‘I love you, Ma, and I miss you and Daisy and Florrie every day. And our Billy an’ all, little sod that he can be at times.’