[custom_adv]
Word spread through the town. People gathered beneath her balcony—not many, just enough to form a kind of sacred circle. Children with wide eyes. Elders leaning on canes. The air was hushed with the weight of expectation. It began like a lullaby and rose like a prayer. No one understood every word, but all of them understood the feeling: it was grief softened by time, hope lit by sorrow, love that outlived death. It was everything she had never said—but always meant.
