A small group of us gathered together for an evening of pizza, wine and gossip. The conversation ranged from the situation in Crimea to who we thought should go through to the next round on "The Voice", the wine flowed, the pizza was guzzled and a jolly good time was had by all.
At the end of the evening I found myself in the kitchen with the hostess.
"This has been a lovely evening" I said.
"Just what I needed, really," the hostess replied. "Husband and I have been going through a really difficult time lately and this has taken my mind off things for a while."
She went on to explain that she and her husband have been struggling with infertility and it's been a terrible strain on them both.
"It's been five months," she sighed. I stared at her, thinking of my years "in the trenches".
And then she said it:
"I know exactly how you felt when you went through this, Illanare."
I picked up the stuffed toy dog her two-year-old son (conceived after two months of trying and now sleeping sweetly upstairs), had left under the kitched table and handed it to her.
"No, you don't," I said. "I'm sorry for your difficulties, but you have no idea - NO IDEA - how I feel."