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The lady with the rose

Once upon a time, there was a lovely lady who wanted to buy a beautiful rose for her husband for their wedding anniversary. She went into the florists and was immediately served by a somewhat humpbacked saleswoman. The saleswoman was determined to sell the nice lady a black rose. The lady did not think that the rose was quite fitting for an anniversary but the humpback would not give up so the lady bought the black rose.

Because the anniversary was on the following day, the lady placed the rose in her daughter’s bedroom and then she went to bed. On the following day, she wanted to awake her daughter and was shocked to the bone when she realised that her daughter had been strangled in her sleep. The lady gave the rose to her husband who placed it on his bedside cabinet and they both went to sleep and grieved.

On the next morning, the woman was shocked to see that her husband had been strangled as well. That night, the lady swore that she would stay awake to see what would happen.

On the evening, she lay in bed with a knife and pretended to sleep. At midnight she heard a strange noise and felt something on her neck. The lady grabbed her knife and turned around. She could not believe what she was seeing. A hand was growing out of the rose and was trying to strangle her – just like it had done to the others. The lady took her knife and chopped the hand off the rose. The chopped off hand immediately turned to dust. On the next morning the woman grabbed the rose and drove the florist in rage to complain to the old hunchback saleswoman.

She stepped into the shop and saw the saleswoman straight away. She immediately noticed that something was wrong with the woman because she did not have a left hand anymore......

Author: Stephanie D.

PS: This story is so old and has been told for generations. It has probably been changed over the years but this is almost the way the story was told a very long time ago.