I met her again, still all in black. Like an Italian widow.

And Jimmy saying he thought she was me, said he forgot I got my hair done. He can be a cheeky bastard at times. You’d swear he was Richard Gere. Looks more like Richard Attenborough these days. Don’t get me wrong, I love Richard, he’s a very intelligent man but he’s no oil painting is he?

Anyway, back to Danny’s ma. She’s not Italian, but she is a widow. Himself died in January. I thought she was still in mourning but she says she just loves black and to to be honest it sounds like she was glad to see the back of him. ‘He was a bit of a bolix’. says she ‘Aren’t they all’ says I.

She’s moving in with Danny before Christmas. Her own house is too big now with him dead and all the family moved on, so she’s selling up and moving in across the road. She says she doesn’t want to move into the house, so Danny is having a granny flat built in the back garden. ‘I like my own space’ says she. ‘ and it’s more a mews than a flat’.

‘Fair play to you’ says I.

She mentioned where her old gaff is, the houses up there are worth a fortune. ‘Danny Boy knows what he’s doing, moving her in, the cute hoor’, says Jimmy, but after talking to Marlene,(lovely name) I know she’s no fool. ‘No point being a merry widow with no ready cash’ says she. ‘dead right ‘ says I. ‘Sure it’ll be there after you for others to spend’. I think we might become good pals, Marlene and me.