While I was at the bar at the other side of the pub, CA struck up a conversation with the single woman at the table seated next to her.

‘How kind to chat to somebody on their own’ I thought – until I recognised CA’s new friend as X, the widow of my late colleague Y. This could be awkward.

When I returned to our table X was explaining to CA that the death of Y risked an already difficult pregnancy. I wondered whether she would also include the detail that the father of the baby (now a grown woman) was not the deceased?