The sense of loss remained, as Emily had been loved and appreciated by all who had known her. That such a quiet, tender person could leave so huge a fissure in the geology of their planet was a lesson; she had been strong and powerful behind that serene facade. Emily had died of a coronary occlusion caused by advanced arterial disease, so no one went to prison. Andrew was slowest to heal, because the loss of his mother cut a huge swathe through his history, slashing into an area in which he had been rooted, since Mother had always been there. Letting go of the past and facing life without Mother was hard, so he threw himself headlong into his work and was quiet at home for a while. When Mary finally got through to him, he told her the lot; not just the facts, the dates, the sequence of events, but also the mutual love that had sustained him and Emily through difficult times. ‘I’ll be all right now,’ he said to her after some months of mourning.
