I left that day believing I’d only taken flowers; I didn’t yet understand I’d been given a lifeline. The shopkeeper never called my theft by its name. She simply met me at the door each Sunday with fresh stems and quiet eyes, placing color into my empty hands. In a house where the cupboards were bare and grief sat like a stone, her bouquets became small rebellions against despair, proof that something soft could still survive inside me.

Years blurred, and I returned at twenty-two, no longer the trembling child but still carrying her memory. I showed her the ring, my voice unsteady as I revealed who I’d once been. Recognition widened her gaze, then filled it with tears. She built my wedding bouquet like a blessing, then gathered a second, smaller one. “For your mother,” she whispered. At the grave, I knelt with those flowers—this time offered, not taken—knowing that mercy had quietly rewritten my story.