A
Yorkshire Love Story
Dr. Yuk-Ching Hon
16 July
2011
An elderly man lay
dying in his bed.
While suffering
the agonies of impending death,
he suddenly
smelled the aroma of his favourite scones
wafting up the
stairs.
He gathered his
remaining strength,
and lifted himself
from the bed.
Leaning on the
wall,
he slowly made his
way out of the bedroom,
and with even
greater effort,
gripping the
railing with both hands,
he crawled
downstairs.
With laboured
breath,
he leaned against
the door-frame,
gazing into the
kitchen.
Were it not for
death's agony,
he would have
thought himself already in heaven,
for there, spread
out upon the kitchen table
were literally
hundreds of his favourite scones.
Was it heaven?
Or was it one
final act of love
from his devoted
Yorkshire wife of sixty years,
seeing to it that
he left this world a happy man?
Mustering one
great final effort,
he threw himself
towards the table,
landing on his
knees in rumpled posture.
His aged and
withered hand
trembled towards a
scone at the edge of the table,
when it was
suddenly smacked by his wife
with a wooden
spoon...
*
*
*
*
*
'Bugger off'.
she said,
'they're for the
funeral.'