I picture Rachel as if she were sitting opposite me, straddling the two worlds – his and mine – with grace, being able to bend and blend so that she fitted in anywhere. The common touch, her mother used to call it. That gift of being absolutely comfortable with anyone. ‘You can’t just stagnate,’ she’d say. ‘You only ever regret the things you don’t do. Never the things you do. And you should do one thing every day that scares you.’
