The last time Hillary Clinton appeared in person before a Democratic National Convention, the year was 2016, the city was Philadelphia and she was accepting her party’s nomination to run for President in what her audience thought would be a shoo-in of a race against Donald J. Trump.

“Standing here as my mother’s daughter, and my daughter’s mother, I’m so happy this day has come,” Hillary Clinton, the first woman nominated for President by a major party, said that night.

Eight years later, Hillary Clinton came out of semi-retirement to return to a Democratic convention, this time in Chicago, to celebrate a woman — Kamala Harris — who is trying to do what Clinton was unable to do: win. It was a generational handoff at a convention that has become all about generational change, from a 76-year-old former First Lady to the vice-president.

But it was also a poignant reminder of how close Hillary Clinton came to breaking the “highest and hardest glass ceiling”, as she had put it in her concession speech.

“Tonight,” she said on Monday night, “so close to breaking through once and for all, I want to tell you what I see through all those cracks, and why it matters for each and every one of us.”

“On the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris raising her hand and taking the oath of office as our 47th President of the United States,” Hillary Clinton said, her words drowned out by the cheers of delegates rising to their feet.

In many ways, Hillary Clinton’s appearance was a much-delayed opportunity for Democrats to honour this woman who has been a fixture in the party since 1992, when a convention in New York nominated her husband, Bill, to run for President. In 2020, Hillary Clinton addressed the convention remotely, a face on a screen, speaking from her living room in Chappaqua, New York.

This time, she stepped out onto the stage and was greeted with wall of cheers and applause that lasted more than 90 seconds before Hillary Clinton was able to quiet the crowd and begin speaking.