Ellen and Sarah went south to stay with Carl’s sister Margaret in March 1940. Carl’s parents, Major Grayson and Demetria Larimore, had moved the family’s accounting firm there in search of bigger clients. Grayson knew that he would have to expand his client base beyond the farmers who made up his original clients back in Green Ridge Valley. Carl’s two older sisters, Margaret and Kara, along with Winifred, Ellen and Sarah moved south to Westbridge with Grayson. The area was originally farms, but developers purchased almost all of the land and built houses. The first houses were built on what became Dover Street. These houses were fairly small, but Grayson had a large house built at the corner of Dover Street and Litchfield Avenue. He had a smaller house built for Winifred next to his house. She spent her time visiting with Demetria and helping Ellen cook and bake. During this time, Ellen received the rest of the recipes of the Schmidt and Müller families. The Major bought a small but well-furnished house on Dover Street for Margaret. After talking it over with the Major and Ellen, Carl decided that Ellen would stay with Margaret until he returned from the war. Margaret had health issues, and the family felt that Ellen and Sarah would be good company for Margaret, who was not used to living by herself. The Major passed on in 1961. Demetria continued to live in the house on the corner of Dover Street and Litchfield Avenue until she passed on in 1971. But she would often stay with Margaret and Ellen, and then with Ellen and Carl when he returned from the army. The Major helped Ellen pick out a newly built house on Sycamore Street in 1945, not too long before Carl’s discharge from the army. After they moved into the house, Ellen agreed to let Sarah spend time at Margaret’s house learning knitting and embroidery. Margaret insisted that Sarah read from the Bible, and Ellen did not object. But on one condition—that the reading be appropriate for Sarah’s age.

“Only something edifying,” she insisted, having learned the word from a sermon she heard in church. “Nothing about hell, or judgment or smiting. God builds up, Margaret,” she lectured. “Perhaps one of the Lord’s miracles, or a story about Abraham.”

The conversation was amicable. Then one day Sarah came home from Margaret’s and asked Ellen if she was afraid of perdition. Sarah was told to go to her room and do homework until dinner. It would be another couple of hours before Carl would be home. She turned the oven on and took off her oven mitts and headed for the kitchen door. Sarah suddenly reappeared.

“I’m sorry if perdition is a bad word.”

Ellen smiled at her and told her to sit down. She explained that perdition was not a bad word, but it was one she didn’t need to know at her age.

“You must forget the whole thing. Now go do your lessons. I have to go and speak with your dear Aunt Margaret.”

It was only a short walk to Margaret’s house. Ellen arrived and entered through the front door without knocking. Margaret was sitting in the living room knitting. She looked up when she saw Ellen.

“Hi Ellen I…”

Ellen picked up a Bible sitting on the end table by Margaret. She raised it up and slammed it back down on the table. It was one of those big Bibles with lots of illustrations and pictures, and the text was in big type since Margaret had poor eyesight. So it was heavier than a usual Bible, and made a very loud thud hitting the table. Margaret jumped up, dropping her knitting on the floor.

“Perdition? Perdition, Margaret! For shame! I told you already what my expectations are when my child is here. So Margaret, dear, there will be no Bible readings for a while. I think that best, don’t you?”

Margaret nodded her head.

“Oh good, so that’s that. You dropped your knitting, dear,” Ellen said on the way out the door.

*****************************

 “If not a Bible-reading, how did you come to hear such an expression in Margaret’s house?”

Sarah looked at her mother and explained that it was the result of something that had happened two days earlier. Sarah had spent the day with Margaret, who was teaching her how to knit. Margaret was an expert at knitting and embroidery. Ellen thought that learning both would be good for Sarah. She walked to Margaret’s for the afternoon, and then walked home. Ellen believed that Sarah was old enough to go about on her own. But Margaret took to walking her back home, and Ellen decided not to make an issue of it. Normally, Margaret would knock on the front door. But one afternoon she inexplicably went to the kitchen door, and finding it open, walked in. Entering the living room, they found Ellen joking with Carl, and she was sitting on his lap. Ellen looked up and saw them, and quickly got up. Sarah thought nothing of it. She told Margaret later that she had seen her parents being “friendly” before. But Margaret was appalled and made no effort to hide the fact. Carl and Ellen joked about it later. But Margaret decided she should speak to Sarah about it.

Ellen put her arm around Sarah.

“Now stop crying. I’ve told you about the way of things.” This was an expression Ellen used instead of “facts of life” or some other euphemism. “You mustn’t listen to Margaret about such matters. She has never been married, and married folks know more about the way of things than the Aunt Margarets do. So if she tells you some such thing, come and tell me. So there’s no reason to be upset. Now go and find out if they’re playing baseball.”

Ellen waited until Sarah left the house before walking over to Margaret’s house. For over an hour, Margaret sat quietly with her hands in her lap listening to Ellen’s lecture. She gave a detailed explanation about how every member of a family has their own “station.” It was not fitting for one to exceed one’s station. An aunt’s station did not include talking to her niece about the way of things.

“And it is a wicked thing to interfere with another woman’s child,” Ellen asserted. “And it won’t do to have Sarah’s head filled with your prudish notions. Besides, Margaret, dear, what do you know of the way of things?” Before Margaret could speak, Ellen answered her own question.

“Nothing, I should imagine!” she said with a small laugh. “So you see, you’re not really qualified anyway. I think that for the next couple of weeks, Sarah can work on her knitting at home.”

Ellen got up to leave, but then stopped and turned around. “You know, dear, given your sensibilities, I think you should knock before entering another woman’s house. I’m sure you agree.”

Margaret Larimore

Margaret is the eldest child of Grayson and Demetria Larimore, and sister of Kara and Carl. Like her brother and sister, she grew up in Green Ridge Valley. Since childhood, Margaret complained of a bewildering number of health problems. In fairness, she had been ill on a number of occasions and suffers from poor eyesight. Despite the opinions of several doctors, who maintain that Margaret is of a "nervous disposition" and prone to exaggerating her ailments, Grayson and Demetria believe that Margaret's complaints are genuine. This changes as far as Demetria is concerned in 1922, when a strange epidemic, that the people of Green Ridge Valley believed to be a flu, breaks out after a local tenant-farmer's sister arrives from Kansas to visit. By the time the mysterious illness disappears in 1923, at least 50 people have died. Demetria was certain that Margaret will "hear the trump of the angels calling her to her reward," which is another way of saying that she fears her daughter will die. Once Demetria realizes that Margaret shows no sign of getting the "other-worldly flu," she soon comes to believe that the doctors who have examined Margaret are right. Grayson never did, and he is convinced of his daughter's fragile health. He later decides to leave most of his considerable wealth to her, something that angers Kara, who has long believed that Margaret's health complaints are "all in her head." 

Margaret never marries, but she does show considerable interest in Sarah when she is a young girl. After the family moves to Westbridge while Carl is on active duty during the war, Ellen and Sarah live with Margaret. During that time and after Carl's return, Sarah spends a lot of time with Margaret, who teaches Sarah sewing and embroidery. She also reads the Bible with Sarah, which is the cause of a growing conflict between Margaret and Ellen. Ellen prefers "edifying passages" and disliked the themes of judgement, condemnation, and "smiting." Margaret prefers exactly the readings that Ellen doesn't. When Sarah tells her mother one day about Margaret lecturing her about "perdition," Ellen becomes furious. Her anger grows when Sarah explains that the use of this word is the result of what Margaret and Sarah saw one day when Sarah's aunt took her home. Walking into the house, they find Ellen sitting innocently on Carl's lap. Sarah tells her aunt that she has seen her parents "being friendly" before. Ellen confronts Margaret about trying to instill "prudish notions" in her daughter. Margaret also rebukes Sarah for spending unsupervised time with Walker Blaine and criticizes her for playing baseball. This only widens the rift between Margaret and Ellen, who is adamantly opposed to anyone "interfering with another's child." 

David is not fond of Margaret, who would pepper him with quotes from the Bible. Most notably, Margaret tells David that God is to be found in Heaven. For David, that means that one should not fear dying, since you have to die to go to Heaven. Later, when Margaret is dying, she panics hysterically as she hears the trump of the angels calling her to her reward. This makes a profound impression on David, leading him to question just exactly where God is and causing him to reject the idea that one must die and live again to be with God. Margaret is well-meaning when it comes to Sarah, and despite Ellen's efforts to the contrary, there is definitely a little of Aunt Margaret in Sarah later in life.

Death became a topic that attracted his attention for much of his life. It is rather strange that this was not in a particularly personal way, emphasizing “particularly.” But it is the beginning of his quest that is important now. His quest to find peace with death began with an experience he had when he was 14. His parents dragged him to church every Sunday. Then, although not intentionally, they angered him even more by adding Sunday school on top of it. Death seemed to lurk everywhere at church as far as he could see, with a dying Christ nailed to the large cross hanging above the altar. He was a bit young, and the other kids in Sunday school didn’t care, but this interested him as much as it scared him. Of course, Christ lived again, and this interested him too. Aunt Margaret was always at church. She never married, and when David’s grandfather died in 1961, the year before, Aunt Margaret got most of his money. David’s father told him that his sister had been sick all her life, and so grandpa left his money to her. Dad never resented this very much. But Aunt Kara did, and said so whenever she had the chance. David disliked Aunt Margaret, since whenever he was at her house; she carried around a Bible and constantly peppered him with quotes from it. But then one day, David’s father took him aside.

“Aunt Margaret is very sick and in the hospital.”

David heard often about how sick she was, but she never seemed too sick to him. He figured that it must take a lot of energy to be able to throw so many Bible verses at him. But he thought that if he knew about dying and living again, then Aunt Margaret must be an expert. He was forced to wear the suit his mother bought for him, and along with his sister Sarah, was taken to the hospital. When they got there, David was told that she didn’t have long.

“Long to what?” he asked. Sarah took him by the hand. “We have to be respectful, she’s going to die.”

He wasn’t prepared for this. Sarah was the oldest so his parents told her. At first he was terrified, but then felt much better remembering about dying and then living. But when they were brought into the room, David’s father and Aunt Kara were trying desperately to console her, as she cried out over and over about her fear of dying. His mother brought him and Sarah out of the room. Sarah became very upset as she had been fond of Aunt Margaret. And David was, well, confused. A lot of good his aunt’s continual self-immersion in religion had done. He concluded that she didn’t believe in dying and living again, and it made him wonder if he did.