Growing up, Anne always wished to experience a tragical romance. She spent hours imagining how she would have to say goodbye to the love of her life when he had to move away due to reasons that were unable to be controlled. How he would then spend months mourning and pining over her until he finally made up his mind and got the first train ticket back to her. He would then confess his love to her with tears streaming down his face and get down on one knee and propose to never leave her again. Anne would happily accept and then they would spend the rest of their life together, forever happy. The only difference between these daydreams and her real life was that her daydreams always had a happy ending. It's been 20 years since the love of her life, Gilbert Blythe, died from the flu. Only months later, Anne married Roy Gardner after she accepted his proposal. Roy was always kind to Anne but Anne knew that she could never truly love him as her heart still belonged to Gilbert Blythe. Together, Anne and Roy had a son and Anne named him Gilbert in remembrance of the boy that still held the key to her heart despite all the years since his passing. Gilbert Gardner resembled Gilbert Blythe in many ways. He was very kind hearted and very insightful. When he was young, he would pick flowers from Anne's garden and give them to her as presents. Anne didn't have the heart to tell Gilbert that she wished Gilbert would keep the flowers on their stemsĀ  but she happily accepted his little gifts every time. She would weave them into her hat for the day, forever thankful for her son. He somehow managed to fill the hole that was dug the day Gilbert Blythe died. At night, she would take the flowers out of her hat and press them between the pages of her diary, forever preserving her love for Gilbert. She wrote on the page the day that Gilbert gave her that particular flower. Over the years, Anne had collected numerous journals full of flowers from her precious son Gilbert Gardner. Every once in a while, Anne would flip through her diaries and remember the times that Gilbert Blythe would walk over to her home and pick flowers he saw along the way and hand her the bouquet at her door. How Anne wishes that she saved those flowers. She was so naive back then. Never in a million years could she have imagine that Gilbert would die. Maybe if she had imagined it she would have been more grateful for him. If she only had spent more time with Gilbert while he was alive then maybe losing him wouldn't have hurt so much. But as Anne so frequently reminded herself, if she hadn't been so hopeless when Roy proposed to her, she would never have accepted. She would never have married him, and she would never have had Gilbert Gardner in her life. And because of that she had no regrets, only sorrows. When Gilbert was twelve, he came home from school one day with nothing but a girl on his mind. She was new at school because she was recently adopted by a family in town. Perhaps the reason Gilbert was so interested in her was because he had yet to learn her name but nonetheless, he spent the whole weekend talking about her, and her bright red hair; Gilbert has never seen hair that color before and it interested him greatly. Anne's hair had darkened when she grew up and there was no trace that she once had hair the color of carrots. While this would have sent her old self into great bouts of joy, she could only mourn for her old hair because it was what Gilbert loved about her. There were times when Anne considered dying her hair red but Roy always convinced her to keep it brown because he preferred it to her red hair. When Anne told Gilbert that her hair used to be red, Gilbert asked her why she changed it. Her heart broke as she tried to explain to Gilbert that sometimes your hair color can change as you grow up. Gilbert told Anne that he hoped the girl at school will always be red and Anne couldn't help but see how much he was alike to Gilbert Blythe. Anne knew that Gilbert loved her red hair because he never stopped telling her. Even after years of her insisting that it was ugly, Gilbert would say that it reminds him of fire and that it showed the passion that Anne had inside of her heart on the outside. That didn't mean much to Anne because there were many times that she wished that she didn't care so much about things. It would have certainly kept her out of many situations as well as prevented the many hearts she's broken by acting before thinking. But none of that mattered anymore because her hair was neither red nor was she nearly as passionate as she used to be. Sometimes, when Anne sees something that she knows is wrong, she will try to speak out against it but when she's only met with backlash, she gives up. How she longs for the days when she and Gilbert would fight against injustice together. Gilbert would always support Anne through everything she fought for, especially when no one else agreed with her. That was one of the many reasons why she fell in love so hard with him. After Gilbert died, she didn't have any more fight in her left to keep on with the constant fighting of the status quo. Instead she succumbed to it. She married a man she didn't love because that was what is expected of women. She didn't become a teacher because the town would never accept her. She stayed at home and took care of her only son Gilbert Gardner because that's what mothers do. And although Anne knew that she would never love Roy, every inch of her heart was devoted to her son Gilbert. If it wasn't for him, Anne would have become overwhelmed from her sadness years ago. Gilbert came home the Monday after he first met the girl and proudly announced to Anne and Roy that the name of the girl that he was ever so interested in was Ann, without an E. From that time on, Gilbert was set on her. Gilbert would talk about how smart she was and that he was surprised that she could grow up without school and still manage to be the smartest girl in the class. Truthfully speaking, Ann was the smartest student in the class but Gilbert would never admit that. Gilbert spent years chasing after Ann but he was always met with rejection. Gilbert never let it get to him and eventually he won the heart of Ann. Ann seemed very reluctant to spend time with him at first. She would only agree to any sort of courting if she was certain that either her parents or Gilbert's would be present. This meant that Anne met her on many occasions. Ann was a nice girl and Gilbert was being truthful when he talked about Ann's bright red hair. She was shy but well spoken. She had many qualities that Anne would have spent hours trying to achieve when she was young. After multiple tea's with Gilbert in Anne's house, Ann began going on dates with Gilbert without parental guardians present. Noticing this, Anne realized that there was a large chance that she and Gilbert would get married. Anne was very happy for Gilbert but she wished this could have been the life that she had. Nonetheless, she dug up the box under her bed that had the ring that Gilbert was planning to propose to her with. Anne hadn't let herself look at the ring since she put it away but she never forgot what it looked like. A polished silver band that held a single, sparkling emerald. It was a gorgeous ring and Anne loved it. It was only fair that she gave it to her only son to propose to his future wife. Gilbert thanked Anne immensely for the ring and hugged her tightly. Anne let out a few solitary tears and forced a smile on her face when she looked back at her son. The next week, Gilbert came home from a date with Ann and announced that she said yes to his marriage proposal. Gilbert and Ann wasted no time when it came to wedding planning and within a month Gilbert was getting dressed for his wedding reception. Anne was busy in the kitchen putting the final preparations on their wedding cake when she broke down crying. Everything Anne had held in from Gilbert's death suddenly came pouring out. It was only then that Anne realized that she hadn't fully cried once since he died. But she quickly stopped her tears when she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. "Hey mom, do you know where the cuff links are?" Gilbert asked as he reached the bottom of the stairs. Anne turned around and Gilbert caught sight of the tears on her face. "Have you been chopping onions?" He asked. Anne wiped her eyes again, "Uh, no. Ask father, he will know." Anne replied. "Oh, thanks." Gilbert then rushed out of the room to find Roy. The rest of the wedding went off without a hitch but Anne couldn't let go of the feelings she had finally let come to the surface. She was angry. Angry that she ever let herself marry a man she didn't love. She wished that she had never met Roy. In the months following the wedding Anne had succumbed to the darkness in her heart. All she felt was envy for the life she could have had. She spent her days in silence never talking to anyone. The more that Roy tried to help Anne, the more that she resented him. One night she was up because she couldn't fall asleep. Her thoughts were consumed with anger towards Roy. She would do anything to get him out of her life. Then a thought came to her. She would do anything. Quickly, Anne got out of bed and went downstairs to the kitchen. She pulled a knife out of her butchers block and polished it on a napkin. She looked at her reflection in the knife. Staring into her soulless eyes she committed to her plan. She quietly climbed up the stairs and neared to her doorway. She paced back and forth a few times before she went inside. Slowly, she walked up beside Roy and he slept. She observed him for a moment wondering if this was worth it. Knife in hand, she remembered everything that led to this moment. Doubt crept into her mind, she was hesitating. Suddenly Roy jerked awake surprised to see Anne standing by him, suddenly he saw the knife "What Ann-" he spoke but it was too late. Anne had already plunged the knife deep into his heart. Anger washed over her, completely taking over. She pulled the knife out again and stabbed Roy over and over. She was sobbing and let out will fill with sadness and anger each time she forced the knife into her husbands chest. She heard footsteps outside of her door and suddenly stopped, stunned. She forgot that Gilbert was staying at home for the holidays. "Have you been chopping father?" He asked. "No son." Anne said, a tear falling down her face. "I've been chopping onions."