The Pear Tree

“And there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.”

- Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet

I think I was about three or four years of age when pansies became my favourite flower.

It all started with my great Aunt Rex, my grandma’s sister, who was visiting from Toronto one summer. She was, up to that point, the most elegant, most glamorous woman I had met. She was thin, stylish, and spoke with an affected accent that sounded very old Hollywood. And everything was “mahvelous,” “fantastic,” or “superb.” She had naturally wavy auburn hair, drank hot tea and never took her high heels off, not even in the house.

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