‘Dorcas Wilson. Your hair is too long. It’s dangerous. It will get caught up in machinery and scalp you. Then you’ll be a little bald girl. How would you like that?’ Or ‘Dorcas Wilson. Don’t slouch like that. Pull those shoulders back. You don’t do justice to what God’s given you, girl, and that’s disrespectful to the Lord. If you were my girl, I’d strap a back straightener to your waist.’

As well as saying rude things, Sister Everude made chicory essence coffee, which is just about the most disgusting thing in the world you can drink. When Ruthy visited her with the Hodgesons, she insisted Ruthy have a mug full of the nasty stuff. Mr Hodgeson realised she hated it and took her cup to the sink and tipped it out when Sister Everude wasn’t looking. He would turn and wink to show they were part of a conspiracy.

Someone Ruthy didn’t mind visiting was a very old lady in the rest home. Her name was Sister Ida Rose, and the Hodgesons visited her because she was on their list for a welfare visit. Ruthy said they would take her into the room, sing out hello to Ida Rose, and then leave Ruthy alone with her while they joined other welfare visitors in the tearoom for a good old natter. Apparently there was more tea drinking, cake eating and gossiping between the welfare visitors than actually sitting with the people on their lists.

Ida Rose was a tiny little woman propped up in bed with lots of pillows. She had silvery hair and beautiful soft pink skin. She smelled of talcum powder and roses. Although she was fairly blind, her hearing was top notch, so Ruthy could have conversations with her. She asked Ruthy all sorts of questions about who she was and what she liked to do. Ruthy said they were good questions, not the silly sort most grownups asked you like ‘Do you like school?’ and ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ Ida Rose asked questions such as ‘What do you think of the fact that women can’t hold office in our meeting?’ or ‘Have you had much to do with computers and what do you think of them?’ She only spoke about herself if Ruthy asked her a question, but when asked, she would tell the truth and wouldn’t do a child’s version of the answer.

Ruthy asked her what it was like to be very old, and was she scared of dying. Ida Rose told Ruthy you sort of sink into being old without really noticing, and because it happens gradually you get used to it. She said the best thing about it was not having much to worry about except whether they’d put too much salt in the soup. The worst thing about it was that bits of you stopped working properly, you had to let strangers wash you and wipe your bottom, and you forgot bits of who you were sometimes. She said all we really had in life was the story of who we were that lived in our minds, and for some old people, even those stories slipped away. It was like watching your favourite movie with some scenes removed.