ABSTRACT
By contrast, Bob didn’t know that at 49 he had become a grandfather, a year after he and his daughter Bella had parted so acrimoniously. He didn’t know anything about the lives of his daughter and granddaughter, could only fill in the gaps with (incorrect) imagination and worry. He did not know that twelve years later his granddaughter Sharon was in care, or that when she was 17 her baby was born. Eight years after the birth of Sharon’s baby, he is 74. He had kept his job in the plastics factory until two years before he was due to retire, and then emphysema had caused him to stop work. His arthritis made movement difficult, and he seldom got out of the house even to see the friends he used to meet at the pub.
