People were still standing nearby, talking quietly about what had happened.
The elderly woman introduced herself as Mrs. Eleanor Brooks.
She was seventy-two years old and lived in a small apartment less than a mile from the store with her grandson, Daniel, who was nine.
Daniel’s mother, Eleanor explained, had died three years earlier after a long illness. His father had disappeared from their lives before the boy was born.
Since then, Eleanor had been raising him alone.
She received a modest pension, and although she had managed for years, recent increases in rent, electricity, and food had made everything more difficult.
That morning, she had taken out her notebook and carefully calculated how much she could spend.
She crossed items off her list twice before leaving home.
She chose the least expensive milk. She put back the cereal Daniel liked. She replaced his favorite fruit with something cheaper.
At the store, she had selected bread, milk, eggs, rice, beans, a few vegetables, a small package of chicken, and diapers for a neighbor’s baby she occasionally helped care for.
