The Family Friend

She didn’t like to admit to any kind of vulnerability: she was proud she’d carried on living alone in the villa, long after her friends told her she should downsize, even as her body began to decay. Dorothea, already a friend of Annette’s, agreed and the art therapy centre was born. She was having an out-of-body experience and she felt numb as she dispassionately watched her two friends wrap her husband’s body up in sheets like a Swiss roll. She had been so excited when, on their wedding day, she finally moved out of her parents’ house.