The Widow and the Soldier
Once upon a time, beyond the green valleys, there stood a quiet and peaceful village. In this village lived a sorrowful woman who wept for days after her husband died at a young age. Every evening the woman went to the memorial stone on the high hill and tried to ease her pain with prayers. In the tower near that hill there was a brave soldier who guarded the precious armor of the kingdom in turns. The soldier noticed the deep sadness of the woman and decided to come near her to give her comfort. The two lonely people talked for a long time under the stars and shared their sorrows and their hopes with each other. While time flowed like water, the warm words of the soldier began to melt the snowy mountains in the heart of the woman.
However, in a hidden moment of the dark night, a cunning thief quietly came close to the tower. The thief secretly stole the royal armor made of pure gold, which the soldier had to guard, and disappeared. When the soldier returned to his post and saw that the armor was not in its place on the stand, he was filled with horror. “Oh no, the king will never forgive this mistake of mine and he will punish me heavily!” he shouted. The soldier, whose eyes were red from crying, came in his helplessness to the point of giving up his life. The woman did not accept at all that this good-hearted soldier, who had shown her kindness, should fall into trouble. In order to comfort him and to save him, she at once designed a clever plan in her mind.
The woman immediately took out of the chest the old but shining battle armor left to her by her dead husband. She held out this magnificent armor to the soldier and told him to put it in the place of the missing piece. Thanks to this sacrifice and this cleverness of the woman, the soldier was completely saved from the anger of the king. This event made the bond between the two people even stronger and opened the door of a new beginning. Together they left the shadow of the past behind and decided to look at the future with hope and to walk side by side. Life can bring new hopes even out of the deepest sorrows, at unexpected moments. While there is life, there is hope.