I returned from London at the same time Ana arrived. She comes every Tuesday afternoon to help my mother keep our Reading home in good order, but the main reason for her job is to entertain my mother. Ana is from Belgrade, and my mother loves to talk to her. Soon after we were all assembled around the kitchen table, we started talking about ageing, one of my mother’s favorite subjects. “You know,” she said and turned to me, “yesterday I found a passport photo of yours that must have been taken around 1988.” Smiling she continued: “In that picture you look so … wonderful!” We started laughing. “Of course,” my mother giggled, “that was some twelve years ago.” Ana is not yet thirty.