My birth mother lived two streets away from where my Mum and Dad had retired to, in a sleepy little village near the sea. Mum and Dad had been there for 12 years, but somehow, they had never crossed paths in such a small community. I was living in Australia, and so Mum and Dad got to know my birth mother well before I had a chance to meet her face-to-face. My birth mother was furious that her mother hadn’t passed on the information that I was looking for her and, also, hurt t