He loved the white-with-red-stripes, soft, sugary mints. And he loved her. She loved him, too, but since she worked as a dietician, his gifted sweets went directly into a drawer, never eaten….
His premature death ended more than his gifting of mints, it also ended her sense of joy.
Then the mints started showing up. Everywhere….
In a bowl at the corporate office where she went with a heavy heart carrying his death certificate.
In the salon she cried all the way to, the one where he got his hair cut.
At the bed and breakfast where she stayed near the hospital in a distant town where he died.
Friends got into the act, too. Mints were brought to her from the car wash, the bank, the restaurant.
What had long ago been avoided, judged, and rejected became savored. She knew the truth now: Life is too short to not fully receive it when love comes your way. And she knew now that love truly is eternal. His sweet mints prove it to her over and over and over.
