It was a very cold morning. I’d been up half the night with my insomniac two year old son, and now was trying to get my act together in our tiny cottage in Grove Road. I think it was snowing outside and Kasia was full of beans wanting to go out. Jacek had gone to work and I suddenly remembered that it was the Feast of the Epiphany or the Three Kings and I had a feeling it was a holy day of obligation. So I decided to take the children to church. It wasn’t very far and we had time to wrap up and go for a walk. So that is what we did.

We got to the church early, the Polish Church in Windsor Road, and in my enthusiasm I went right to the front, found a seat for Kasia and me and a space for the pushchair…