Wish I was at baby’s birth

DECADES later, I still feel a pang of regret at missing the birth of our gorgeous daughter.

I could try to blame her for arriving a fortnight early, when she’s now always late, but my heart wouldn’t be in it. I went to Birmingham for a job interview.

We lived in Plymouth but I travelled there from London, as we were staying there with my wife’s parents at the time.

I didn’t own a mobile phone, so it was too late when I was finally tracked down by my father-in-law. To rub salt into the wound, the birth stealers didn’t even give me the job. C’est la vie.