They lived off this headline for years. Never married. Gave talks in primary schools. Children asked the same questions. What bit of the house did you like eating best? (Chocolate table). Did you really push the witch in the oven? (We did). Was your stepmum evil? (Yes).
Now Hansel’s dead, Gretel’s in a nursing home and birds peck up the crumbs of her memories. If she gave talks in schools these days, she’d tell the kids her stepmum wasn’t bad, just poor.
When they bake her a gingerbread house for her birthday, she has little appetite for it.