Achieving the Impossible

Placing the bouquet of pink peonies, her grandmother’s favourite flowers, beside the headstone, she was reminded of something her grandmother had once told her.

“They symbolise good luck and prosperity.”

But it was her grandmother’s words, on her eighteenth birthday, that had navigated her future.

Stroking the honey bronze enamel body and wings, encrusted with green and amber rhinestones, her mind wandered back to the day her grandmother had gifted her the brooch that now adorned her lapel.

***

“It’s claimed bees shouldn’t be able to fly. Their bodies are too large and their wings too small,” her grandmother asserted, as she opened the box to reveal the little brooch.

“Yet they do fly!” she continued.  “I’ve always believed everyone has it in them to achieve the impossible.”

“It’s beautiful, Grandma.”

“Let it remind you that nothing comes easy.  Like the busy worker bee, you too must work hard to achieve your goal.”

***

And work hard, she had.  Each step towards her goal had been far from easy but, whenever it seemed impossible, those words had propelled her forward.  It saddened her that her grandmother wasn’t here today to share this moment with her but, in her heart, she sensed she knew.

Three months ago, the votes had been counted and the winner announced.

A vigilant, uniformed man approached.  “We need to leave now Madam President.”

She nodded.  Her inauguration party awaited her arrival.

Carefully removing a peony from the bouquet, she whispered “For good luck and prosperity, Grandma.”