‘This is hard to hear, Max. You’ve been a very good son. No mother could have asked for more. But you need to accept it. She does.’Dr Klein had been their family doctor since Max was born and while always a friend, had become more like family these last three years during his mother’s illness. The malignancy, which had led to the radical double mastectomy, had been more aggressive than first assumed and had consumed her rapidly. The elegant, gorgeous blonde that photos of her youth attested to had vanished. However, even at fifty-seven, and before the cancer had been diagnosed, there’d been few peers who could match Ilse Vogel’s striking beauty. Max was often embarrassed by his friends’ approving remarks and particularly that she’d made the ‘Most Desirable Mother’ list in high school.But it was her sparkling personality that people loved most about her, and despite being a spinster she was on every smart cocktail party and dinner guest list. Ilse’s glamour meant it was often overlooked that if the war hadn’t got in the way, she might have been one of Europe’s leading female scientists.
