When I was eight years old, I read a story at school, the gist of which I present below. It had a profound effect on me and this, together with America, With Love by Kathleen Winsor, which had a similar message and which I read about ten years later, influenced my whole life.

Once upon a time there was a man who had the love of a beautiful young woman. He married her but, because of the way he treated her, he made her very unhappy and her love for him lessened until eventually she loved him no more. Being too sad to care what happened, she neglected herself, became ill and died.

One day an old woman came to the man's door with a magic mirror to show him how his wife would have fared had he treated her as he should have done. He looked in the mirror and saw her holding a baby and smiling happily. He realised, too late, what he had done and what he had lost.