Mum was visiting Ascension Island on her way home from St Helena, so I asked her to get a photo of the yellow fever cemetery for me, as I was interested in its links with global communication and the sailors who remained there. She asked her friend Stedson Stroud for a map, so he jotted one down and she set off, under the assumption it would be nothing more than a quick jaunt.

The map was not drawn with great accuracy or attention to scale so mum wandered around for ages without water or shelter, unable to find what I had asked her for. She returned disappointed but happy to be alive, with only the paper map to show for it.

I asked mum to sew the map onto a bed sheet.