but it was much harder for Mum. Bertie Kelly’s visit last March had been totally unexpected. For four days they’d seemed like a family, but it didn’t last. He’d left them in the lurch again, after pocketing the rent money, with no forwarding address. Biddy had been inconsolable but there was worse to come just a week later . . . ‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ Biddy Kelly had promised Cora, hoarsely. It was a pledge she couldn’t keep. Visitors were barred from the fever hospital but on
