What hit me really hard that night, though, was the character Emily’s farewell in the last scene, after the mourners have gone back down the hill to their village, having buried her. She says, “Good-by, good-by, world. Good-by, Grover’s Corners... Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking... and Mama’s sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths... and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you. “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?—every, every minute?”
