‘…He went on farther, and in the great hall he saw the whole of the court lying asleep, and up by the throne lay the king and queen. He continued moving, and all was so quiet that barely a breath could be heard, and at last he came to the tower, and opened the door into the little room where Princess Aurora was sleeping.
There she lay, so beautiful that he could not turn his eyes away, and he stooped over her and gave her a kiss.
And as soon as he kissed her, Aurora opened her eyes and awoke, and looked at him with the sweetest expression . . . And then the marriage of the king’s son with Aurora was celebrated with all splendor, and they lived contented to the end of their days…’
I closed my Disney story book with a contented exhalation, and inserted the big, colourful book between a collection of story books in my personal library in the space mom had created for me in the large mahogany bookshelf in the dining area. I was nine years old at the time. Continue reading