Summary: Chapter 5
Will thinks of his late grandmother, Mattie Lou. Mattie
Lou was very different than Miss Love, but like Miss Love she was
feisty. Mattie Lou was a passionate gardener and was very refined
despite her lack of formal education. Rucker began courting her
when she was twenty-one and considered an old maid. Will remembers
how his grandmother’s illness began: one day, Mattie Lou has a stroke and
begins to hiccup uncontrollably. Will and Hoyt hurry over to the
store to take care of business while Rucker stays with Mattie Lou.
Later in the day, the town doctor comes by and tells Hoyt that Mattie
Lou cannot be saved.
Summary: Chapter 6
Will continues to relate the story of Mattie Lou’s death;
the townspeople gather to pay their last respects to Mattie Lou,
but Rucker won’t let anybody see her, not even his daughters. Will
enters Mattie Lou’s room, finds Rucker crying quietly to himself,
and sneaks back out. Later, as Will sits by Mattie Lou’s bed, Rucker
comes back with a rose to remind Mattie Lou of the day they began
courting. Mattie Lou smiles and talks, in slurred speech, of the
old days. She then begins to breathe loudly, and Rucker tells Will
to pray with him. Rucker prays for God to help him remember that
all life and death happens for a reason and asks God to forgive
him his sins against Mattie Lou. The next day Mattie Lou is better.
Summary: Chapter 7
Will continues that a week later, Mattie Lou begins to
deteriorate. As Will sits by her bed, Mattie Lou hallucinates, seeing
an old woman crawling on the walls and two men with shovels coming from
the graveyard to steal her away. She sees a group of angels, which
delights her. That night Mattie Lou dies, and Rucker is heartbroken.
Will says that anyone who saw the look on Rucker’s face would know
that he was not lusting after Miss Love.
Summary: Chapter 8
Will continues that Miss Love helps after Mattie Lou’s
death, cleaning Rucker’s house and preparing for the funeral. Miss
Love says that Mattie Lou took wonderful care of her when she had
the flu and that she would like to help in any way she can. On the
morning of Mattie Lou’s funeral, Rucker asks Will to help him pick
all of Mattie Lou’s roses. They attach the flowers to a sack, making
a blanket of roses. Rucker will bury Mattie Lou in an expensive,
store-bought coffin, which Will points to as evidence that he truly
loves her. Will and Rucker go to the fresh grave and line it with
the blanket of roses. Rucker tells Will that Mattie Lou once remarked
that she would not be afraid of dying if she could be buried in
a bed of roses.
Summary: Chapter 9
Will continues that Rucker goes back to work the day after
the funeral. Rucker behaves coldly to his family and assistants.
Miss Effie Bell Tate, Rucker’s gossipy neighbor, tells Mary Willis
that Rucker sits up late at night.
Back in the present, Will hates being in mourning. He
remembers how his younger sister, Mary Toy, got her hair ruined
by Aunt Carrie, a bossy eccentric woman with odd ideas who decided
to dye Mary Toy’s hair black because her natural red hair seemed
inappropriate for the funeral. Will goes to Rucker’s house and remembers Mattie
Lou and the stories she used to tell about interesting deaths. It
seems unfair that Mattie Lou’s death was not that fascinating, since
she so enjoyed a grisly story.
