In the countryside where my grandmother and her husband settled, the hills were littered with small chapels. After her husband died and before the onset of the Second World War, my grandmother would, in her spare time, visit the various homes of Saints. While she swept and cleaned these often-neglected holy spaces, her children would, always under the watchful eyes of Saints, play freely outside.

And so it was that my mother learned, early on, to associate the Church with open skies and the spontaneous laughter of children.