This piece was written for a Writers’ Circus challenge (March 2021) on the theme of ‘a fairy story’.

A few weeks before writing it, one of our dearest friends died of heart failure. This followed a bad fall in October 2020. Her brave struggle to recover was hampered by several underlying medical conditions.

These events played out against a backdrop of Covid and its restrictions.

Following a relapse in February 2021, she was admitted to hospital and died two days later.

Two months earlier, her twin sister had also died of weak heart.

I think these tragic events have imbued this story with a tinge of melancholy.