The day before Daniel’s funeral, the bench wagon was delivered by two men. They helped move out all the downstairs furniture to store in the barn. Then they set up the benches in the empty house. Neighbors stopped by all throughout the day, bearing dishes of food for the shared meal after the burial. As long as Carrie stayed busy, she was able to push away troubling, stray thoughts. Just like when her father died and Sol left, she found that the sun rose and set and the days would come and go, and there was the washing and the cooking and the gardens to care for. One couldn’t live on the crest of grief every single moment. The day after the accident, the undertaker returned Daniel’s embalmed body to the farmhouse for the viewing. Tears streaming down her face, Yonnie held the Crazy Quilt in her arms that she had given Carrie for a wedding gift. “Do you mind, Carrie?” she asked her as they tended to Daniel’s body, just as they had tended to Eli’s only weeks before.
