“Fireworks for Elspeth” by Rumer Godden
Number 22 of 27 Great British Short Stories
Premise: It is a young woman’s “Last Day” and she must negotiate family (the mother from Hell?) and an erstwhile fiance…
Review: Nicely done. I am not the target demographic perhaps, but you can – between the lines – see what Elspeth wants to do and why. Today we would talk about PTSD…
Also, I totally missed the gut punch at the end because I don’t know my New Testament at all well enough
Outa ten: 9
Keywords: liminality, van Gennep and all that.
Quotes:
“The news had burst suddenly on the family and the family friends. Usually, over any happening or idea, Mother took Aunt Euphrosyne and most of the neighbourhood into her strict confidence – how often had Robert and Daphne and Elspeth writhed when their most private doings and feelings were made discreetly and unfailingly public.” p.306
“Reverend Mother was silent for a few moments and then she said, “Perhaps you are given no words because there is no need for words. The action speaks, Elspeth,” and she asked, her face serious, “Isn’t that the way of the Cross?” p.309
“Yes, but…” “There are pieces in a kaleidoscope, bits of paper, and rag; you twist the glass and they are whole in a whole pattern.” She might have used that symbol, or “It’s like finding yourself on a map, knowing where you are, and then you know the direction,” but Elspeth could only twist her hands helplessly. P311
Father never made an outcry. “Your Mother’s a very emotional woman,” he had often said to his children. “She feels.” Her feelings were so strong that no one paid much attention to his. When Robert was killed, Mother collapsed but Father only seemed more silent, to grow a little smaller, a little balder; he began to have indigestion, but he was as quiet and gentle as before. p.315
Words:
Toque- a woman’s small hat having a narrow, closely turned up brim.
Cona (trademark?) – coffee maker, i think.
Primula – Primula (/ˈprɪmjʊlə/)[2] is a genus of herbaceous[3] flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. They include the primrose (P. vulgaris), a familiar wildflower of banks and verges. Other common species are P. auricula (auricula), P. veris (cowslip), and P. elatior (oxlip). These species and many others are valued for their ornamental flowers.
Look up:
St Therese of Liseaux Thérèse of Lisieux[2] OCD (born Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin; 2 January 1873 – 30 September 1897), in religion Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face,[3] was a French Discalced Carmelite who is widely venerated in modern times. She is popularly known in English as the Little Flower of Jesus, or simply the Little Flower, and in French as la petite Thérèse (“Little Therese”).[4][5]
Therese has been a highly influential model of sanctity for Catholics and for others because of the simplicity and practicality of her approach to the spiritual life. She is one of the most popular saints in the history of the church,[6][7] although she was obscure during her lifetime.[8] Pope Pius X called her “the greatest saint of modern times”.[9][10]
Angelica Crabs
Bible verse Mother abjures “His mother and his brethren were standing without”
St Elizabeth – roses
Within Catholicism, a miracle of the roses is a miracle in which roses manifest an activity of God.[1] Such a miracle is presented in various hagiographies and legends in different forms,[2] and it occurs in connection with diverse individuals such as Saints Elizabeth of Hungary (1207–1231), Elizabeth of Portugal (1271–1336), Saint Dorothy, a 4th-century virgin martyr at Caesarea in Cappadocia (died ca. 311), and Our Lady of Guadalupe (appeared in 1531).
In its most characteristic form the legend goes as follows. One day the young but pious Elizabeth, in the company of one or more serving women, descends from Wartburg Castle down to the village of Eisenach, below the castle. She is carrying meat, eggs, and bread under her mantle. Supposedly she has taken items from the family dining table to distribute to the poor in the village, against the wishes of her family, who frown upon such behavior. Halfway down, she unexpectedly meets her husband Ludwig IV of Thuringia, who asks, upon seeing her bulk, what she is carrying. Embarrassed and speechless as she is, she does not know what to say. Ludwig opens her mantle, and to his surprise (in some versions this takes place in the dead of winter) finds her carrying a bouquet of roses.[8]
St Teresa – levitation
Levitation was the last thing Teresa of Avila wanted. It drew the wrong kind of attention and embarrassed her in public. She tried to remain grounded, clinging to furniture when the weightlessness set in, and then suddenly, it stopped for good. Carlos Eire reads Teresa’s autobiographic Vida and finds the 16th-century saint complaining to God about the aethrobatic miracles that he forced her to endure.
Teresa, who became a celebrity in her town dispensing wisdom from behind the convent grille, was known for her raptures, which sometimes involved levitation. It was a source of embarrassment to her and she bade her sisters hold her down when this occurred. Subsequently, historians, neurologists and psychiatrists like Peter Fenwick and Javier Álvarez-Rodríguez, among others, have taken an interest in her symptomatology. The fact that she wrote down virtually everything that happened to her during her religious life means that an invaluable and exceedingly rare medical record from the 16th century has been preserved. Examination of this record has led to the speculative conclusion that she may have suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy.[16][17]
St Joan – wind changed
Scene 3 (29 April 1429): Dunois and his page are waiting for the wind to turn so that he and his forces can lift the Siege of Orléans. Joan and Dunois commiserate, and Dunois attempts to explain to her more pragmatic realities of an attack, without the wind at their back. Her replies eventually inspire Dunois to rally the forces, and at the scene’s end, the wind turns in their favour.
Ribston pippins ‘Ribston Pippin’ is a triploid[citation needed] cultivar of apples, also known by other names including ‘Essex Pippin’, ‘Beautiful Pippin’, ‘Formosa’, ‘Glory of York’, ‘Ribstone’, ‘Rockhill’s Russet’, ‘Travers’, and ‘Travers’s Reinette’.[1]
Afterlives of the story/connections to other stuff: There was a TV adaptation in the 1970s
Is it online? Nope
marchudson.net 
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