New York seemed like a fantasy – a kingdom of skyscrapers, peasants and kings, and impossible to get to. With no car, no horses, we’d have to walk or hitch.

Some of them wanted to wait for Billy and Angelina to come back. I couldn’t tell them that if we stayed, we’d end up like them. I hope that’s what happened. I couldn’t stand an alternative.

There was no ceremony. There was no ‘bye, house’. We just started walking.

About three days into it, the whining, the crying, had almost stopped. The kids had realized what I realized. This wasn’t going to get any better. This was what we had to do, and complaining wouldn’t solve anything.

Three more days later, we came to a trainyard. That was when I realized we had to split up.