Here we are, all these years later, standing back and watching our grown children have their lives – through ordinary times, through heartbreak and anguish. But even after horrible events, we are sometimes blessed with a moment of unexpected joy. We learn to grasp, to hold tightly to these moments for the short time they exist.

I’ve tried not to be trapped in repetitive furrows of my own.

Say your fears into the dark, my darling, and they will go away.

He brushed a fingertip over his lips and signalled across the room. "Now I’m going to take you home." But it meant something else, too. Grania’s cheeks reddened furiously when he made this public-private display, though no one else had noticed.

No matter what else we do with our lives, Maggie, music will soothe and calm us. Music will last, and outlast, and cast its spell and enter our souls and connect us across time and distance. We must believe this, both of us, all of us.