The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern

by Lynda Cohen Loigman

To ignorant men, every gifted woman is a witch.”

kind word can fix a person’s spirit. A cruel one can break a person’s heart. Wicked words have caused wars, and honest words have made peace. Why shouldn’t they be able to heal?”

“Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.”

“It is not so simple, is it? I could offer many more interpretations, but the point is, there isn’t one explanation. Things are never as straightforward as we want them to be, Goldie. Why must I choose a single solution when the truth lies somewhere in between them all?”

That was the nice thing about spending time with a person you’d known for almost all of your life—the memories you shared grew even more vivid when you remembered them together.

Augusta wasn’t merely her eighty-year-old self—she was fourteen and sixteen, two and twelve. She was a child swimming in the ocean with her mother and a young woman watching her aunt make soup. She was a curious girl who asked too many questions. She was a grieving daughter at her mother’s funeral and a maid of honor at her sister’s wedding.

We did the same work, we healed the same illnesses, but they called him the apothecary and they called me the witch.”