As October faded and decayed, November blossomed; the jacaranda tree exploded in fireworks of purple flowers amongst the green tree tops haggling and hunkering over the back fence.
The invasion of colour occurred at the same time they injected her with drugs to fight the cancer in her blood.
And the flowers began to fall, denuding the tree, forming a purple carpet on the backyard lawn; scattered randomly and suggesting they could be counted where they fell or numbered as the hairs on her head. The purple flowers faded, cut off from the tree, turned brown and became one with the earth.
As the last of the flowers fell, tiny green shoots pushed through, heralds of the turning season. And she waited.
A Fullness in Brevity - Adam Byatt 
