Rose*, a stay-at-home mother from Nottinghamshire, always felt she had a close relationship with her two children. She enjoyed having her busy, cosy family life with her daughter and son (three years apart in age), who both lived at home until they went off to university in different parts of the UK.

Rose’s daughter – the elder of the two children – was always good at keeping in touch – ringing at the weekends, and helping to organise family events. Her son was less proactive, but would always take his mother’s calls, and he’d come home for her birthday if he could, and do something with her for Mother’s Day.

Both children moved to London in their early twenties and had their own house shares, first “real” jobs, and busy lives, but Rose, now 62, and her husband would visit, and the fam

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