The moving story of a young girl's struggle to face her mother's death.
"She traveled to our small white house near the Iowa border on a buckboard, her green bag caked with the dusty road . . . I knew that she was called "the Shrouding Woman" because I'd heard Papa use those words to describe her. I didn't know what it meant but I knew it had something to do with death."
It was once common practice for small towns to have a shrouding woman to help put their dead to rest. Still, when eleven-year-old Evie's Aunt Flo-herself a shrouding woman-comes to town, Evie knows little of a shrouding woman's ways and wants nothing to do with this aunt of hers, especially after her own mother's recent death. But as this mysterious woman slowly makes her way into Evie's life, her strong and sensitive presence brings far more than signs of death to a grieving girl's home.
Set in the mid-1800s, this beautifully written story, centered on the little-known practice of shrouding, touches on death and healing with sensitivity and quiet dignity.

Ellsworth, Loretta

Holt & Company, Henry

Henry Holt & Company

St. Martin's Press

Macmillan Trade

United States, United States of America

First pbk. edition, New York, 2007

2, 20070612

1, 2007

The moving story of a young girl's struggle to face her mother's death.
"She traveled to our small white house near the Iowa border on a buckboard, her green bag caked with the dusty road . . . I knew that she was called "the Shrouding Woman" because I'd heard Papa use those words to describe her. I didn't know what it meant but I knew it had something to do with death."
It was once common practice for small towns to have a shrouding woman to help put their dead to rest. Still, when eleven-year-old Evie's Aunt Flo-herself a shrouding woman-comes to town, Evie knows little of a shrouding woman's ways and wants nothing to do with this aunt of hers, especially after her own mother's recent death. But as this mysterious woman slowly makes her way into Evie's life, her strong and sensitive presence brings far more than signs of death to a grieving girl's home.
Set in the mid-1800s, this beautifully written story, centered on the little-known practice of shrouding, touches on death and healing with sensitivity and quiet dignity.

When her Aunt Flo comes to help care for eleven-year-old Evie and her younger sister after their mother's death, Evie wants nothing to do with her and she is especially uncomfortable with her aunt's calling of helping prepare bodies for burial.

2024-12-20