“THe church is full of flowers-yellow roses, lilies, blue hydrangeas spilling forth-and it is on these that Charlie trains his gaze and looks for his mother, who is nowhere to be found. Not even her ashes are in the church, and no coffin, but this is less hard to comprehend than the fact that she is not herself there, a thin old bird, an egret maybe, standing on one leg, head bobbing, long neck swiveling. Contradicting, adding and subtracting. poking fun. Peering out.” DyingMomBirdsEgret Book:The End of the Point Source: The End of the Point
“From her mother, Janie learned to play charades and murder in the dark, to run three-legged races, to spot hermit thrushes, towhees (Mrs. P. said the towhee's call was "Drink your tea!"; Bea said it was "Brush your teeth!"), and tell prairie warblers from the maryland yellowthroat and the great horned from the barred owl by their calls.” NatureChildhoodBirds Book:The End of the Point Source: The End of the Point
