The first month without a mother moves as slowly as mountains. We’re poking around Mum’s old house and debating whether to sell up or keep it for us and the kids to live in. The clearing out daunts me. Clara glances around like she’s itching to drag a rake through their things now they’re both gone. Mum and Kendall spent 40 years together in this slumping weatherboard.

Clara picks up a faded photo of me in my early twenties loafing on the bonnet of Kendall’s Cortina.