or me, February is inextricably linked to Valentine’s Day, and the loss, many years ago, of someone I loved. It is a bittersweet day that reminds me of an absence, coloured with red hearts that adorn shop windows and supermarket aisles, and it has the ability to exclude those of us who are alone. The person I lost on Valentine’s Day was not a partner, it was someone I grew up with. Someone whose face I see in pictures of my childhood. Someone who left far
