My mother spends her days serving a ‘holy man’. How can I make her see he is not a positive force?

‘It’s extremely difficult to “make” a person see anything,’ writes Eleanor Gordon-Smith. Painting: An Old Woman Cooking Eggs (1618) by Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez. Illustration: Alamy

My 62-year-old mother has formed an attachment with a man 20 years her junior (let’s call him Luke). It is not romantic. She spends around 12 hours a day at his house, cooking his meals and cleaning.

Luke inherited his house and a sizeable trust fund. He has rather lavish tastes. Airport transfers, costly grocery shops and seemingly endless home improvements are all provided by my mother.