Really wanted to see Sara and The Artist today. Not spending physical time together is top of my list of little losses. I say little because I know people are making far greater sacrifices than this right now. But me and ML and my sister and her wife have built such a tight loving unit from the ashes of more than our fair share of trauma, and the daily ways we are woven into each other’s lives make all the difference.

We hatch an Easter plan that doesn’t flout any rules.

We drive round to their house at midday with a warm lemon and raspberry polenta cake that ML baked this morning while I was writing my diary in the garden. We deposit it at their front door and then go back to our car. Sara and The Artist appear on their doorstep with chocolates, which they set down and then stand back while we pick them up. This is the nearest we have been to actually visiting them for a month and even being in front of their house feels like something special.

From their doorstep, Sara tells us a story: yesterday at the pet store, she was waiting in line at the allotted distance from the till and a man cut in front of her. The shop assistant pointed out the queue and that Sara was next. He pulled an annoyed face and continued to push forward, at which point Sara reminded him of the required distance. The man defended himself saying ‘I just wanted to squeeze past.” The Artist takes over and repeats his sentence in disbelief: “I just wanted to squeeze past.”!