When my mother was turning 75 I told her we were going hang gliding. “It’s really amazing,” I said, having just circled Christ the Redeemer’s head in Brazil. “You’ll love it. The views are incredible and it’s only a gentle jog off the edge of a mountain and then you are flying like a bird.” She put her foot down. She was not flying like a bird at 75 years old, she said.

I was disappointed, we had been on so many trips together: Patagonia horse back riding, swimming with dolphins in the Bahamas, Normandy for œufs pochés, Newport Rhode Island to revisit the Vanderbilt Mansion where she had been evacuated to during the war, Russia, long before it was fancy (we had to take our own bath plugs), and when David and I decided to celebrate his 45th birthday on safari in Africa… my mother came too. David was a little surprised.

So when my business partner asked me to consider launching a direct sales company and I wanted to experience an event first-hand, of course I asked Mum to join me.

We were rather suspicious of the idea… going to a party in a stranger’s home to buy something we could not find in any shop? We agreed: one cup of tea, a quick look and then slip away.

It was a miserable, damp night. “In and out” we promised each other.

Several glasses of rosé later, laden down with receipts from a good evening’s shopping, we merrily waved goodbye to our hostess. “Stay in touch,” I shouted, as we drove away. “Well, that was fun,” said my mother.

I called my partner the next day. “Yep, I’m in.”

Since launching this business, one of the greatest pleasures is discovering how many other mothers and daughters come to our events together. It might not be Newport or Normandy, but it is time together. Precious time together.