The darkness in the hallway caused by a burned out light bulb, fit the mood in the days following Ness’ death. Juliette, Glorietta and Rosetta stayed in Ness’s empty home. The snow outside, coupled with the light bulb, gave the whole world a feeling of a profound and quiet dormancy.  

“I guess Mom never fixed that light in the hallway,” Juliette said.
“I think she did fix it but then the lamp cover fell and broke an hour after she screwed it in.”
“Yeah, it committed suicide.” Rosetta said.
“Well, the glass cover maybe be dead and gone but someone needs to put a bulb in so we can see down the hall for when the guests come in. God I hope it doesn’t snow for the funeral. It’s gonna be like we’re all a bunch of bears hibernating in here, if we don’t get a bulb in there soon.” Juliette said.
“Oh. Here’s the Attorney guy. He’s ugly. He’s weird.” Rosetta said while looking out the windows set above the davenport.

After Nelson came in and made his first introductions, he easily made himself comfortable in Ness’ familiar home. Rosetta flipped through a magazine while eating a bowl of cereal in the living room, feet up on the coffee table. She watched the television and crunched loudly while Nelson discussed the more boring legal verbiage of the Will.

Nelson assumed Rosetta was deliberating her own existence by ignoring everyone else’s, he did a good job of ignoring her and wondering if this was the granddaughter Ness discussed so much. Nelson had no idea he would have such a hard time convincing Juliette and Glorietta that the Will was real and that the responsibility of the headstone and the new name was theirs. Although they were fine with the changes, they did not agree on most of the details. The hours droned on after Nelson finished his legal presentation. He noticed the undue dark spot in the hallway and realized he was conversing with Juliette and Glorietta via the melting psychedelic colors of Rosetta’s television comedy. Nelson found the glow useful when putting on his hat, scarf, and finding the proper latch to put his hand on for a smooth and quick exit.

Nelson stood in the halo of the porch light, hovering over everyone’s heads, while saying good-bye. Juliette stood frozen by the front door for many minutes following his smooth exit. Nelson stood out front gazing on the two-story house. He noticed its wind shoved corners, peeling paint from the snows and sun. The only virtue was the weight that kept it on the hard grounds of Winnipeg. It too felt the emptiness of its missing contents. The porch light stayed on so the girls could see down the hall, the screen door slammed awaking Juliette from her daze. No one noticed the darkness anymore. It just became a hovering hallway in the old house. Juliette went to her old bedroom, lay down and cried herself to sleep.

The conversation came out of the periphery of Rosetta’s disinterest. Around the serene gravesite, of all the places, Juliette and Glorietta decided to air out their distain for each other. Everyone witnessed the display, as the casket lowered, of not only the somber moment, but also the crude voices of the departed’s offspring. Mostly everyone stood and listened from the periphery of their newly found interest.

“You’re in the darkest depths of hell if you measure the existence of light around the kitchen table in increments of pain. Introduce some light in there and then we might have to actually look at each other.” Glorietta said.
“I’m packing up and going home as soon as all this shit is over.” Juliette responded.
“The hell you are.”
“Lower your voice, Glory.”
“Shut up, Julie.”
“I’m calling Dad and asking him to come to Winnipeg an throw cold water on the two of you, if you two can’t get along.” Rosetta chimed in.
“Shut up, Rosetta.” Both Juliette and Glorietta said in unison.

That was the one thing they had in common. They both were decidedly sick of Rosetta’s teenage mouth. The two cemetery workers’ watched, as the three women grew less and less aware of their social surrounding. Mostly people came to sit quietly and speak prayers and update their loved ones on everything, but these three shouted their secret murmurs about each other, high above the nearby freeway’s drone.

“Let’s just call the whole thing off. This is ridiculous. This is a complete joke.”
“Selfish and self serving even at Mom’s funeral, you couldn’t stay through the whole mass? And did you have to leave right in the middle of it where everyone could see you leave?”
“I’m not going to explain myself to you.” Glorietta responded.
“What’s so ridiculous about doing what she asked? It’s what she asked for in her Will, which she supposedly wrote. I didn’t like that lawyer guy…what was his name, guy.” Juliette said. “God, Glory have you even cried or spent time with Mom since she died? You run when you see the casket, you fucking coward.”

They buried her that day under the headstone that Ness dreamed about, with or without everyone’s blessed consent. Ness would be there always looking above at her new name and thanking the girls for honoring her wishes. Her wishes being, that they use the wording she’d chosen to mark the time for her as she slept quietly. She had chosen the name, Ellen Walters after her mother and father, and spoke of her regrets for not changing it sooner, in the words Nelson read aloud to Juliette and Glorietta. It was a good strong name, which Ness liked.

Alongside her all-important name, Ellen Walters asked that her years on Earth stand out. Ellen thought writing them in detail, all the numbers properly in their place, would do just that. Ellen knew this would leave room for her most sacred and secret thought about her name and her life. Lining the bottom of the headstone, Ellen asked that these carved words appear as her epitaph:                                                           
                 Bitter, Ness Eluded Her
 
“I’m calling Dad to come an get me outta this rancid taco stand.”
“Shut up, Rosetta.” Both Juliette and Glorietta said in unison.
 
As the Funeral Director and the gravesite workers snugly placed the granite marker temporarily above Ellen Walters, Juliette, Glorietta and Rosetta stood and reveled in its beauty, in silence. The beauty of Ellen’s words resounding through their sometimes cold and indifferent hearts. Juliette started to cry, for her future was there, lying unshakably. Her mother would lie below an unfamiliar name, never to return to her and place a kind hand on a shoulder whenever any of her girls needed one. Juliette cried because Ness Bitter really had changed her name after so many years of saying she was going to do it. Juliette admitted through her tears, the name and epitaph really were beautiful.