"I choose to join the Sisterhood"
When Mary was brought to the Cathedral, one of the Sisters took her outside, beside the Cathedral where the fence bordering the woods was. Outside the fence, Mary was able to see numerous zombies, trying to bite through the fence. Sister Tabitha told Mary then that she has to be the one to choose to become a Sister. If she wants, she can choose to become a zombie instead. This alternative shows that being a Sister was not far from being a zombie in the sense that Mary had no control whatsoever over her life.
"marriage is not about love… it is about commitment and compromise and caring"
Cass and Mary found themselves in a complicated situation when Mary is asked by Harry to marry him while she is in love with Travis. Cass, who was in a relationship with Travis and who was supposed to marry him, loved Harry but he did not show her any type of affection. Mary tries to come up with different solutions to their problem but Cass tries to convince her that even marrying someone they do not love is better than remaining alone forever. Cass believes that even if two people get married, they don’t necessarily need to love one another to be happy. If they respect one another, then that is enough for Cass. For Mary however it is not enough just to respect someone as she believes that there needs to be love between a couple for the relationship the last a long time.
I have been alternating between hope that my mother turns quickly and dread that she will turn too quickly and I will have lost her forever.
Mary’s life was changed forever when her mother decided to become a zombie and follow her husband into the woods. The people who remained behind had to deal with the loss and Mary was the one who was affected the most by her disappearance. Mary chose to remain by her mother’s side until she died and during that time she had conflicting feelings about what she wanted to happen to her mother. While Mary wanted to spend as much time as possible with her mother, she also wanted her mother not to suffer.
