Persephone Books discussion

By Winifred Holtby

This story was published in the Persephone biannual: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/027.... It’s on page 9.

You get to a certain age and it becomes a routine to read the obituaries. Mrs Lancing never had the “honour” of having anyone on the casualty list. Not sure what I thought of this one. She certainly was cool and collected. Seemed to know how to behave when the time came.

This was a weird one and definitely my least favorite so far. the combination of the jealousy over women who had sons that died, and the cool as a cucumber reaction to her husband's heart issue was a bit bizarre. But maybe she just underestimated herself and thought she would fall apart and actually just was able to function in a business like manner so she could help in the most effective way. Sometimes shock makes you nonfunctional, and sometimes it helps you do what needs to be done in an emergency.