The Last Leaf

Here today, gone tomorrow...

The morning sun made it impossible to miss this last leaf dangling from the branch of our decorative crab apple tree.

    It reminds me of one of my favourite movies as a child called The Last Leaf, based on a short story by O. Henry:
    A young girl, dying from pneumonia and confined to her bed, decides she will die when the last leaf falls from a vine she can see outside her bedroom window.  The more the leaves fall, the more her health declines.
    An elderly neighbour, a frustrated artist who has never been able to paint the masterpiece he yearns for, comes to visit the dying girl.  Later that night there is a huge storm and everyone is terrified that in the morning the few remaining leaves will be gone.
    To everyone's surprise one leaf remains.  That leaf is there the next day and the next.  Inspired by the persistence of the single leaf, the dying girl has a change of heart and makes a miraculous recovery.
    The girl is saddened to learn that the old neighbour is in the hospital dying from pneumonia after being found outside, injured and cold, on the night of the storm.
    That spring the girl discovers that on the night the last leaf fell, the old man had climbed a ladder to paint a "permanent" leaf for her on the vine, his final masterpiece.

Sad and beautiful at the same time.