“A woman needed milk in her to have her full health.”
A woman having milk in her means that she is a mother. Motherhood is very important for granny, she had four children, and she always did everything she could in order to help them both with money and advice. And a woman can be fully complete and morally healthy when she is a mother. Maybe for physical health it is not of a big benefit concerning giving birth and all the sleepless nights after all, but power and strife for life that children give cannot be overestimated, and it is only possibility a woman can have a full health.
“She was never like this, never like this!” “Well, what can we expect?” “Yes, eighty years old…” Well, and what if she was? She still had ears.
Within the story the granny is not pleased with being labeled old. She does not consider herself helpless and even thinks of leaving Cornelia’s house for her own. From the conversation between Cornelia and doctor it is clear that they treat her as an old feeble woman. Well, it is really so, just granny refuses to accept that, and her remark that “she still had ears” proves that her vanity is hurt.
Very often elderly people refuse to accept their old age, telling that it is inner spirit and inner strength that counts. And granny is one of these. He has gone through a lot in her life and is not used to give up so easy. She still has feelings, emotions to be expressed and self-esteem to be hurt.
“She had spent so much time preparing for death there was no need for bringing it up again. Let it take care of itself for now.”
Granny has been preparing for death for twenty years, and now when this is about to happen she refuses to accept it. Her denial of death burns her from the insight. Preparing for something and accepting it when it really happens is not the same thing. Granny never complete takes it, as it has been said “let it take care of itself for now”.
