‘No one had been kind to me or asked me if I needed anything for such a long time. I think I’d fallen off people’s radars. And it was before I had Poppy to focus on. I was just going through the motions really, just barely existing.

‘So I told Mrs Newman everything, about Dad leaving us and then Mum dying and me being all on my own, and she just listened. She was such a great listener, I remember that, and somehow just saying it all out loud made it feel less scary. She never told me what to do or judged me in any way. She’d make suggestions sometimes, practical things, you know. I mean, a month before I’d been a schoolgirl, and now I was having to cope on my own. I knew nothing. You say that I’m independent, Clio, but really, I had no option. I’ve had to be, but it was hard, finding my feet. Mrs Newman just made it all a little bit easier. And I saw her often in the early days. We arranged to meet in the church every couple of weeks and I’d tell her how I’d been getting on and she’d listen to me, and gradually, things began to improve.’

Clio was crying openly now, tears rolling down her cheeks. She wiped them away with a handkerchief that she pulled out of her pocket. The tip of her nose had gone red and her mascara had run in little black watery streaks. I was glad, because seeing her like that made me want to laugh, and that made the story less difficult to tell. I was through the worst bit now and I’d got there without crying, which made me feel proud of myself.

‘After I met Noah’s dad,’ I continued, ‘I decided that I didn’t need help any more. I was on top of my life. I had two kids and a partner by then, and just about enough money with bits of cash-in-hand work and my benefits, and I didn’t have much time to spare. So I stopped going to our meetings in the church. I missed Mrs Newman to start with, and I felt bad because I’d never really said thank you for all she’d done, but life was busy and I just kind of moved on. Once, when Noah was about two, I went back to the church to look for her, but she wasn’t there. I asked the vicar about her, but he said they didn’t have a counsellor in church apart from him, and he didn’t recognise the name Newman. Maybe he was new or something? I don’t know. Anyway, I never did get the chance to thank her.’