I had never really thought of my friend Pat as ‘posh’, but his mother certainly was. Her voice had the beautiful lilt of the refined southern Irish. Her manners were impeccable. She looked the part too with short, very dark, well cut hair, a slim but shapely figure, elegant clothes and a regal bearing. You felt you had to be on your best behavior in her presence. At fifteen I fancied her desperately despite her being an ‘older woman’ of around forty.
When she opened the door to me that morning however, she looked just a little