Dad would come out two or three times before Mum would be happy about which tie he was wearing. He had a big tie collection because he had inherited his brother’s ties when he died, and because Mum bought him a silk one every Christmas from money she saved from the housekeeping. She liked his tie to go with her dress. Sometimes it was good fun watching them negotiate about the tie. Dad would come in sort of dancing like a model in his socks and twirl around the table with his chin in the air and his wrists dangling down from the end of his hands and Mum would laugh and laugh and tell him to stop being an idiot, when she really meant she thought he was very funny.

We would leave home at ten thirty in order to be at the Memorial Meeting in Halifax Street by 11 am. After the meeting, which Mum said finished later and later every week because the Exhorting Brothers loved the sound of their own voices, we either stayed for a family lunch, or came home and had fresh white bread sandwiches together before driving back for Sunday school at three o’clock. We bought the bread from an Italian shop on the way home and I loved, loved, loved it. It was often still warm, and sometimes the three of us had a fight in the back seat about who would hold it. Occasionally Caleb hugged it too hard, and it was a bit flat when we got it home, which made the sandwiches squishy, small and out of shape. I sometimes couldn’t help it and dug little holes in the end to eat the soft white heaven, and then tried to pinch it together so Mum wouldn’t notice, but she always did. And that meant I wouldn’t be allowed to have a crust, which every person in my family agreed was definitely the best bit of the whole loaf.

And then Dad would go back to the evening meeting at 7 pm and I would often go with him because Mum said it was too much for the little ones to stay out until after 8 pm. This was true but I think it was also that Mum didn’t enjoy church nearly as much as Dad did and she was glad to have an excuse not to go. I liked Sunday nights because Mum made my favourite tea quite often which was cold roast lamb, baked beans and mashed potato. I think it was her way of saying thank you for going with Dad to church. The other two got to watch Walt Disney’s Disneyland with Mum before they went to bed, and I was a bit disappointed about missing that, but if I had to choose, I’d rather go with Dad into town.