The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County Quotes

“All these kids today thought you needed so much time. Time, time, time! As if another year would show you the kind of father a person could be, or how the nightmares about battlefields in Vietnam would keep him up at night, or how many times you'd be yelling about refilling the toilet paper roll. No, those things were only learned by commitment. They all thought you had to be in love to commit. They didn't realize it was the other way around: that love came from commitment. Nobody ever tells you when you get married how many days you'll wake up in the morning and want to strangle the other person. No, to them it was all Pinterest boards and buttercream flowers.”
― Claire Swinarski, The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County

“Nobody deserved anything. Everything anyone gave each other was a gift: a grace, something to behold.”
― Claire Swinarski, The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County

“But I think we’re all messed up, and some of us are working on it, and some of us aren’t. And I’m working really, really hard.”
― Claire Swinarski, The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County

“Noodles in chili makes it goulash,” Katharine Rose insisted. Bea slapped the table with her palm. “I’ve been putting noodles in my chili since my grandmother and I first made it.” “I don’t care if you’ve been doing it since Jesus walked the road to Emmaus, you weren’t making chili.”
― Claire Swinarski, The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County