Late in life they bought their council flat under Mrs Thatcher’s Right to Buy scheme. They didn’t feel good about this but it gave them a small retirement fund. All this is to explain not just their politics but also their lack of hoarding. Council flats don’t have storage space so they borrowed books from the library and were not encumbered by possessions. When mum and dad moved to their private flat in Hendon they acquired a garage – into which we children and our kids deposited all our spare possessions. We should have dealt with them at the time but we didn’t and my stint with my brother in that garage today bore witness to the trivia we all collected and delayed in discarding. Now that mum is in a Care Home it’s time to sort out the garage and to sell her flat so that she has enough funds to pay the fees for a few years (after that it’s a sleeping bag on the street or, as my brother suggested, a little room in SoHo with one of her new friends from the Care Home!). The items we have salvaged are albums and albums of photos which mum meticulously curated when she moved to Hendon after retrieving them from lying loose in suitcases. There were also a collection of all the theatres programmes from their 65 years of theatre going including this one – quite fitting after last night’s broadcast of the performance filmed at The Gables two weeks ago.

I liked this sporting programme from White City which included the legendary Roger Bannister

I took a small, silver covered album out of its velvet pouch. It was a memento of mum’s Drive In when she became Lady Captain at Potters Bar Golf Club in 1993. This was no mean feat as she only began to play golf in her 50’s. She had a terrible tee off but a memorable and happy year as Captain.

I am looking forward to spending time with our refugees leafing through the old photos and reminiscing. Thanks for the memories.