She was not completely alone; she had her husband with her, and those animals that shuffled and sighed heavily in the  night. Even so, Mary felt alone and isolated. This awesome event that should be attended by the women in her family, bustling noisily with the activities that only women understood, was starkly different for her. She wished that her mum was with her. Somehow she felt that having the person who brought her into the world with her would make everything she was