I got on a plane to my mother’s hospital and my husband was eleven rows in front of me with my best friend. There was a note of hers in my handbag that she’d written on my fridge that morning.

They smiled. Both of them. He said something to her and she laughed and took the ribbon off.

And then she opened it.

PART 2 — WHAT WAS IN IT

Two things.

The first was my boarding pass.

The paper one. I had printed it in the house because I do not trust my phone, which is a thing my children find hilarious, and it has my name on it and it has 14C on it.

I did not write anything on it. I thought about it in that toilet cubicle for about four minutes with a pen in my hand and I could not improve on it.

Dellow, Francesca. 14C.

That is all it needed to say. It says: I am on this aeroplane. I have been for two hours. I am eleven rows behind you.

And the second thing was a Post-it note.

Here is the bit.

Saskia was at my house on the Tuesday morning.