Cardiac ablation is the art of treating heart rhythm irregularities with freezing. Not like musical statues at our wedding, where the music stops, you freeze, and when it starts you dance. There will be scars. These stop abnormal impulses. Nothing reaches that part of the heart again. The feeling’s gone.

Rosaleen Lynch, an Irish community worker and writer in the East End of London, has words in lots of lovely places and can be found on Twitter at @quotes_52 and 52Quotes.blogspot.com.