How did aunt loretta die?

[Allie]

I did not finish the book and was curious and read somewhere that she died

[Kari]

Yes she did. She fell and was injured, but got sick from the medications (antibiotics).

[Beth]

We discussed this book in my college course, and the feeling I get is that she died of AIDS. There are references made about Aunt Loretta's ex-husband and how he cheated. On page 55 Loretta is telling her friend Helen all about Roger sleeping around with her friends, his friends' wives and then both men and women. Also another reference that made me think of AIDS is on page 68 - "a husband different than Uncle Nathan that wasn't so funny and didn't have a special kind of disease just for men who are funny like him." This book is taking place in the early 80's when AIDS would have been a new and emerging disease that was characterized as a gay disease.

[Christina]

Beth wrote: "We discussed this book in my college course, and the feeling I get is that she died of AIDS. There are references made about Aunt Loretta's ex-husband and how he cheated. On page 55 Loretta is tell..."

Thank you Beth! I was puzzled by her manner of death too, and thought there was more to it than a reaction to antibiotics.