Rounding up the dog for a walk, I thought it would be a good chance to ask a someone to join me.
Fancy meeting? I asked my eldest son Ashley, now 43.
No, I can’t, he replied. I’m busy, Mum.
And it was a response that I had been getting more than most – and at times, especially during 2021, I thought Ashley was avoiding the subject.
With Ashley living in his own place, we used to have a regular routine of seeing one another over the weekend when he was in his 30s.
Only as we went for walks, there was something I had started to pick up on – Ashley’s eating habits.
With every week that passed, I’d noticed that he was piling on the pounds.
‘I’m worried about you,’ I said – trying to be polite.
‘I just don’t fancy cooking after a long day at work,’ Ashley would say,
