Winston House

Winston House is the overarching setting for the short story. The reader does not learn that this is the place from which Sweetness is narrating until the latter pages of the narrative. Though Sweetness is only 63 years old, she began living in the nursing home when she was diagnosed with a bone disease. The nursing home is located in the city, and is small and inexpensive. While there, Sweetness receives biweekly visits from the doctor, but never sees her daughter. Lula Ann only communicates with her via the envelops of money she sends. Lula Ann disrupts this pattern of communication, when she writes to her mother announcing her pregnancy.

Hospital

The short story opens in an unnamed hospital, in an undisclosed city. Though the reader later learns that Sweetness is reflecting years later upon her mothering experience, the narrative begins with Lula Ann's birth. As soon as...