I laughed while curled up on a bus bench outside the library, holding an open backpack full of scholarship forms. I looked at them, then at the sky. My laughter was this strange, sharp sound that almost scared me!
“But… she didn’t even know who I was,” I said.
“Actually, she did,” he replied. “She asked the hospice staff to help her find you. One of the night nurses memorized your coat, the red one with a missing button, and your gray knit hat. She followed you at a distance one evening and saw you enter the shelter. The nurse spoke to the receptionist and found your name and heard the story of how you ended up there.”
“She… followed me?”
“Margaret wanted to thank you. Quietly and kindly, without scaring you away.”
I couldn’t speak. My throat felt too tight.
Paul continued, “Margaret, who’d also gone blind, asked the nurses for detailed descriptions every time a pie arrived. She’d guess the flavors from their smells. She insisted on saving slices to share with the other patients.”
“My client also kept a journal about them, where she wrote down which pies arrived each day and tried to guess what kind of person the baker was. She even tried to guess your age. I was there when she once said, ‘Whoever she is, she’s quiet, young, and grieving. But she still knows how to love.'”
I was beyond shocked!
“Could you tell me a little more about Margaret?” I asked softly, feeling a connection to a woman I’d never met and would never meet.
“She guessed that you’d ask,” Paul replied, obviously smiling at Margaret’s correct prediction. “Margaret was a retired librarian. She was widowed and had no kids. She had stage 4 liver cancer and spent her last year in hospice. According to the staff, she barely spoke to anyone until the pies started showing up.”
Paul promised to stay in touch and keep me updated about the transfer of the estate.
I kept the news to myself for a while. I didn’t even tell the other girls at the shelter. I was scared that saying it out loud would make it vanish.
But then Aunt Denise found out.
I wasn’t sure how, but it didn’t take long to figure it out. Margaret’s estate had to be publicly listed through the local probate court. It showed up in the legal notices section of the city newspaper. Denise subscribes mainly for the crossword and the obituaries. She saw my name.
She called me that evening. I didn’t even say hello.
“You owe me,” she said immediately. “I raised you after the fire. I gave you everything. I’m your family!”
“You gave me nothing,” I said.
“You don’t deserve it! And I lost your mother, too. That house should’ve gone to me. That money should’ve gone to her sister. To family!”
I hung up. Then I blocked her number.
Margaret’s house is in a quiet neighborhood with wide streets and big porches. It smells like cedar and old books, and the front porch swings in the wind. There’s a little greenhouse in the backyard full of roses and orchids.
Her husband built it for her on their 30th anniversary.
I moved in last month. I still haven’t touched the money.
But I bake in her kitchen now. I use her wooden spoons, her rolling pin, and her mixer. The note above the oven reads, “The best ingredient is time.”
I still bring pies to the hospice, the shelter, and now the hospital as well. However, I now leave a small note on each box with my name.
“Baked with love. From someone who’s been where you are.”
A stranger’s pie changed my life.
But it was her kindness, not the money or the house, that gave me something I hadn’t felt in years.
Peace.
This work is inspired by real events and people, but it has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the narrative. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims to the accuracy of events or the portrayal of characters and are not liable for any misinterpretation. This story is provided “as is,” and any opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
