A Taste For Life

A woman walks in a garden cemetery She has walked here every day for many months, ever since her husband died of a dire illness in the last days of winter. Now it is late summer and she is still dressed in heavy black all over, so still and pale that she has frightened other visitors who mistook her for a ghost.

The gardener, an old man who had seen many things, had been watching her for a long time and finally one day, he steps into her path and gives her a ripe, golden fruit he has picked from a tree. She puts her hand up and says, "I won't eat fruit from a graveyard, what are you thinking?"

The gardener says, "It is specially blessed by all the spirits here. It is good fruit. Try it." The woman sighs and takes the fruit, takes a bite. She startles aware as the sweet taste explodes in her mouth. She looks at the gardener, looks at the fruit, and starts to cry at last.