Summary

Essay 5 is titled "Rabbit" and is about Sarah’s grandmother and her relationship with her. It opens with the author remembering her grandmother taking her shopping and to the beauty salon. When Sarah was eight, she received a stuffed rabbit, which Sarah slept with even though she thought she was too old to do so.

The focus of the essay shifts to Sarah’s grandparents meeting in 1945 at a dance where the grandmother rejected the grandfather because he was too short. Sarah described her grandmother as independent and likely to do or say “whatever she please[d]” (282).

When the grandfather was dying of cancer, Sarah’s grandmother cursed the disease and withdrew as the rest of the family argued. Sarah learned that her grandfather wanted to be a writer and that he loved mystery novels. He told Sarah to always...