‘I have,’ Julie said, her voice barely above a whisper. ‘Your nan. They never let me see your granddad, but I was with your nan at the end. And afterwards. I had to put her make-up on for the funeral because they didn’t do it right. Made her look like a clown. I couldn’t have her looking like that. She wouldn’t have liked what they did.’

‘I didn’t know that,’ Stephanie replied, coming back to sit next to her mum. Mark stood up, moving away to give them some space. Not that he could go very far.

‘She was always particular about how she looked,’ Julie continued, still unmoved from her position. ‘It didn’t seem right that she went out looking less than perfect. It was only right. There’s so much to think about now. Everyone we’ll have to tell, the plans we’ll have to make, where we’ll have the wake, the church part… everything.’

‘Shush, Mum,’ Stephanie said, talking over her mother as she continued to mumble about the things she had to do. ‘We can sort all that out if we have to. We can’t get ahead of ourselves yet.’

Mark watched the two of them together, Stephanie comforting her mum as she continued to shut down. From the outside, if you couldn’t see the age difference, you’d be forgiven for thinking Stephanie was the older of the pair: the mother figure, comforting her daughter. Telling her everything was going to be all right, even when the evidence suggested otherwise. He imagined that in years to come, this would be a moment Stephanie would look back on as the time she really became an adult. She was about to turn twenty, but he didn’t really believe she would have experienced anything like what she was about to go through.

There was movement behind the doors and then they were pulled open, cool air rushing towards them. A woman in a long white coat, hair scraped back and glasses perched on her face, appeared and looked towards him first, then at the other two women.

‘You can follow me through now,’ she said, giving Mark a quick glance. ‘We’re ready for you.’

Julie got to her feet first, slowly and with a deep intake of breath. Stephanie followed her up, reaching out to grasp her mother’s hand. Mark fell into step behind the pair, then took hold of the door as the woman directing them moved ahead of the group.

They passed a few rooms on either side of the dimly lit corridor, the temperature seeming to drop with each step.

‘Here we are,’ the woman said, coming to a stop next to a viewing window. Mark leaned against the wall a few feet away from Julie and Stephanie, waiting to jump in if necessary. For now, he was content to stand back and try to not get in the way.