The Siblings
It was not expected that the siblings, James, Adelaide, and Ellen would not be in a hurry to leave their family estate so quickly. On the contrary, each of them had booked a return train ticket for the same day. It is absurd how they view their mother as a burden and a duty rather than out of love and concern. None of the siblings wants to be left to care for their mother which is ironic and unbelievable. Everyone is expected to love and be genuinely concerned for their mother but not their siblings. They hurry their mother into giving them the inheritance their father had left them. It is more like they only came to collect what their father left them and nothing else. They only become concerned when their mother surprises them with how she has planned to spend the rest of her life. Each of them volunteers their home to take her in out of guilt for having not been so greedy and not caring. While it is also expected that children would miss their parents, call and visit them, the three never visited their mother and felt relieved to be out of that town.
Mrs. McPherson
Everyone had expected that she would be heartbroken and distressed after her husband’s funeral. Instead, she talks about how liberated and alive she feels after the death of her husband whom she had served for more than thirty years. She talks about having served her duty to her children and her husband for all those years and now needing time to focus on her desires. She felt like she did not have any duty to anyone anymore since her children are grown and her husband was dead. She surprised her children by presenting before them documents that showed she was the owner of the estate while the children had imagined it was still belonging to their father. In addition, she had the remaining part of her life planned so well unbeknownst to her children who thought she would be a burden to them. She knew her children and how they felt about her and therefore planned everything including her funeral. She proves her children wrong who thought that she did not have a life of her own and would have to step in. She leaves them in awe and surprise as they did not expect the twist that happened.
The Partners of the Siblings
Ironically, the partners of each sibling fail to come to their father’s funeral for absurd reasons. James’s wife's reason for not coming was that she just could not leave New York for a funeral. She insisted that the only things that could make her leave New York were either a trip to Denver or a vacation to Europe and nothing else. Her excuse was not valid at all and in fact, was selfish and wrong. Ellen’s husband, Jennings gave an excuse for not being able to leave his classes in Cambridge to attend the funeral. People make time for people they want to make time for especially family and therefore classes were not a good excuse at all. Adelaide’s husband, Oswald also failed to attend the funeral giving an excuse of taking care of his business in Pittsburgh. It was only courteous and out of support for their partners that they should have attended but all three of them failed to come which did not look good. It is expected that when one’s partner loses a parent you be there for them and support them in whichever way you could but not them.
