Part Two: Lillian Summary

Chapter 4, The Age of the Year, focuses on the earlier life of Ann's beloved Gramma, Lillian. As a girl Lillian has seven aunts, all sisters of her mother. Lillian has a gift for making pie crust. On Saturdays, she goes to the home of each aunt in turn, making pie crust while the aunt chats and does sewing or laundry. The sisters are close, and use Lillian as a messenger to carry recipes, notes, gossip and questions from one to the other.

Lillian's mother is ashamed of her husband, a welder. Lillian has only one sibling, a fair-haired brother named Milton. One day while the rest of the family is away, Mother takes 7-year-old Milton into her lap and begins kissing him as if he is a man and fondling him. Shocked, she comes to her senses and releases...