The Christmas Night Markets brought thousands of people to our hospice grounds and stallholders to our basement car park. There was live music courtesy of a guitar-strumming singer who sang Christmas carols that we all knew the words for. It was a family event with many generations represented. I usually only go shopping once a decade, but tonight my inner Ebenezer was silenced and money flew out of my wallet like butterflies searching for sweet nectar.

I usually go with my family but this year my wife was busy, instead my daughter and her friend came along. They were both looking for presents to buy for their mothers. This event was the latest edition of a community engagement project. The aim was to invite people into our hospice grounds, to get to know us a bit better.

Lots of families attended and shared food. Some of our patients from our inpatient unit came down with their family members. I caught up with three families who had come back. All of them were different in many ways but they all shared something in common. Each of the mothers of the families had died in our care.

A little boy lined up to buy churros with his father who reminded me of Hercule Poirot. The boy’s primary school school had visited a local amusement park the other day. He looked well, had grown a little bit since I’d last seen him and he was as smiley as usual.

A young lady had finished high school for the year. Her father was still as friendly as ever and shared a laugh with us. He’d met my daughter before when he had last visited the hospice. She had introduced herself as the new Director of Nursing.

A local politician introduced me to his friends. He told me that his mother had died almost three years ago. This made his eyes glimmer briefly and he had to blink fast before the surface tension of his tears broke. I realised it had almost been four years for me, which made me gulp down my own emotional response.

Time can fly and life goes on, but it sometimes feels too strange. We all missed our mothers in different ways. After Mum’s death, things had never been the same again for any of us.