“When Mum died, BD stood sentry in the hall for weeks,” he tells me. “He didn’t understand that she wasn’t coming home. One day, Simon pulled a beanbag into the hall and joined the dog’s vigil. Dad didn’t think it was healthy, tried to get them to do something else, but they wouldn’t. One night, after a particularly miserable dinner, none of us knew what to do with ourselves, least of all Dad. Simon had laid out cushions in the hall. He wanted us to sit with him. So, we did. We all sat on the floor with the dog and we talked about Mum. It was the first time we’d seen Dad smile in months.” Will
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