Out the Summerhill Road: A Novel

Aunt Bossie’s Funeral

Part 2: 1980 • The Women of Cold Springs 65 Aunt Bossie’s Funeral Rumors like wildfires! When one dies down, another more outlandish than the one before, flares up. Jackson Morris has returned and bought a farm. Jackson has not returned, but is planning to return. Jackson came back, stayed at the farm a few days and flew off in a little red prop plane, just took off from a country road. This last is an image so outlandish and titillating it sends a shiver down Sarah’s spine although she doesn’t believe a word of it. Jackson would never come back to Cold Springs. Whatever else one might say about Jackson, he was nobody’s fool. Today, she is going to the funeral for Mary Martha’s old aunt, dead at ninety-three. The funeral will be sad. Only a few of Aunt Bossie’s old friends are still alive. Those who are able will come on walkers or in wheelchairs or, cane in hand, they will walk unsteadily down the church aisles. Later on she will have dinner with Hite Bennett, an old friend and sometimes lover. Come Tuesday, they will be playing bridge at Betsy’s house because, as Betsy says, it is far more comfortable than Gaynor’s. Sarah had thought Mary Martha would not want to play so soon after her Aunt Bossie’s funeral , but “No,” Mary Martha had said. “The last thing Aunt Bossie would want is for me to change my plans.” Well, that’s fine with me, Sarah tells herself. But it has always amazed her that everybody seems to know exactly what the dead would want. To her mind, Aunt Bossie might just as well have said, were she still alive, “Mary Martha, for this one time it won’t hurt you to miss your bridge game.” Isabel had called to say she wanted to sit with Sarah. “Please stay out of the garden! Get to the funeral on time!” she pleaded. “I will. Gaynor’s coming with Betsy. Let’s all get there a few minutes early and meet outside.” 66 Out the Summerhill Road “That way we can sit on the aisle so Mary Martha will be sure to see us.” “Perfect!” Sarah had said. After breakfast, Sarah glances at her watch. She still has plenty of time. And minutes later, here she is, in her garden, snipping white roses off the Lady Banks rose bushes. After arranging them in a silver goblet on the sofa table, she steps back to admire their beauty. Then, she showers and dresses. And now (Where has the time gone? she asks herself), she has to hurry or she’ll miss the funeral! Arriving after the service has started, she finds herself tiptoeing down the center aisle, looking for a seat, while Miss Cugee Case sings, “Just As I Am.” She tiptoes past Gaynor and Isabel, crowded in with latecomers, late no doubt because of her. Darn! She will have to sit with Aunt Bossie’s family, but then, thank goodness! she spies a seat right behind Mary Martha and whispering, “Excuse me. Excuse me,” to the people who are already seated, she settles into a seat just as Miss Case finishes her solo. Before she has time to read the program, Brother Tinsley is coming forward to give the eulogy. “Let us pray,” he says and bows his head. There is not a whit of uncertainty in Brother Tinsley’s prayer. His prayer sounds like a neighborly conversation with a fishing buddy as he prays that all the fish will be netted just as Aunt Bossie has already been netted in her Master’s net. After another hymn, he begins his eulogy. “All of us, oh Lord, every one of us, believers and sinners alike, can rest assured that Aunt Bossie is with her Maker. Let us not doubt it for a minute,” he says. “Aunt Bossie, a saint on this earth if there ever was one, is looking down on all of us from heaven.” Then Brother Tinsley looks toward the ceiling and in a reasonable voice, says, “Aunt Bossie is at last in heaven with the Lord God and happy to be there with all the saints who came before her.” Part 2: 1980 • The Women of Cold Springs 67 Sarah has no idea where Aunt Bossie might be right now. She didn’t know her...