The day before she moved, I asked Madame Rochat to pose for me in her apartment. She asked me if I liked her dress, saying it was not perfect for the photo. I replied that no, it was perfect.

She posed in front of her Général Guisan tableau. She was my building’s concierge, a job she did for 40 years. The day she retired, the building’s owners asked her to move, She wasn’t concierge anymore and so could not keep living in the concierge’s flat. I never saw her again.