The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County by Claire Swinarski
What's It About?
Armed with a Crock-Pot and a pile of recipes, a grandmother, her granddaughter, and a mysterious young man work to bring a community together in this uplifting novel.Claire Swinarski welcomes new fans and graces her readers with a charming, uplifting novel The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County. Anyone who has ever lived or spent time in Midwestern or Southern states is familiar with the comforting custom of feeding the family, friends and mourners a meal at the conclusion of a funeral or graveside services.
Depending on the time of day, it can be a luncheon or dinner, by invitation or open to all present, and is typically a buffet. It eases the burden on the family of the deceased and often provides them with enough leftovers for additional ready-to-heat or freeze meals.
Mourners have the opportunity to come together to visit with the immediate family, view photographs and home movies, share their memories, express their grief and mingle joyful laughter with pent-up tears. It’s a shared, multi-generational community experience that truly helps people to cope with grief and to let them know they are cared for and not alone. The practice seems to have faded in larger towns and cities but thankfully still remains engrained in small towns.
“Funeral Ladies” Provide Bereavement Meals
The Larson family matriarch Esther is 82 years young and has been cooking for funerals in northern Wisconsin for seven decades, beginning as a young kitchen helper with her mother and grandmother. She leads the group of church women known as “funeral ladies” in providing the bereavement meals.
“It is her firm belief there is very little a warm casserole and a piece of cherry pie can’t help.” Her pies are legendary, completely made from scratch with light flaky, lard based crusts. Calories and cholesterol aren’t counted and you won’t find vegan on their menus although they may make some minor concessions for gluten free. Velveeta, canned cream of mushroom or chicken soup, frozen hash browns and egg noodles form the basis of many a casserole.
The long tables will be laden with bubbling crock pots and chafing dishes along with platters of sliced ham, shredded beef up north or fried chicken south of the Mason-Dixon Line, multiple congealed salads, breads and rolls with plentiful desserts near the urns of coffee and pitchers of tea. This is the time for familiar foods that soothe, comfort and fill the diners with the love offerings made ready for them.
As soon as Father Sam, the young priest of St. Anne’s Catholic Church, gives the blessing, the line will move forward. He has a significant role to play in The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County. He was ordained two years ago and still called simply “Sam” by the older parishioners who’ve known his family since long before his birth.
Protestant funerals are held at Trinity Lutheran Church. The basements for these occasions are almost interchangeable and the well-organized team serves all families of the dearly departed.
Community That Cares for One Another
Esther and her late husband Felix had purchased a home on Musky Lake needing a new roof and some TLC for a good price when he returned from Vietnam and they married. They worked together until it became one of the prettiest homes in town with sturdy steps leading down to its own long dock, the site of many a swim party.
Next-door neighbor Katherine Rose became an instant friend when she brought a plate of cookies on moving day over fifty years ago. Patricia or Mrs. Thomas Murphy as she introduced herself back then lived on the other side and remained a tad distant. There were several members of the all-volunteer “Funeral Ladies” group who met regularly to plan meals and converse.
Families in the town were mainly Catholic with a sprinkling of Lutherans and neighbors helped each other in good times and bad. After Katherine Rose’s husband left her for another woman, Esther kept her and her boys fed for a month and Felix mowed her lawn until his death five years ago.
Unopened notices from the bank kept piling up at Esther’s; not because she was getting loopy or senile but because she had fallen for an online scam from a new “friend-in-need” named Hazel who claimed to be a single mother. Good-hearted, generous to a fault Esther who squeaked by on the small annual income from Felix’s meager VA benefit and social security had imperiled her beloved home by sending $30,000 to this trickster. Delinquent property taxes and a new lien on the house, also unpaid, have resulted in foreclosure notices.
Ever self-sufficient and too proud to take hand-outs, Esther finally confesses her dilemma to her cohorts, her daughter and son-in-law and two adult granddaughters. Her family is able to scrape up $10,000 to pay the outstanding taxes and has negotiated an extension with the bank but Esther fears she may be homeless in a matter of months.
The Funeral Ladies come up with a rescue plan in the form of a community cookbook. Will it be enough? Meanwhile, today’s funeral is for the late Annabelle Welsh, the seldom-seen granddaughter of a local resident, who was, through no fault of her own, the victim of a car crash. Esther’s granddaughter Iris has the Welsh family as the first paying guests in her not-yet open tourist home Redstone.
Alert the media! The selfless, endearing Annabelle was television chef Ivan Welsh’s second wife. Ivan’s show takes him around the world sampling and recreating exotic recipes ala the late Anthony Bourdain and is also a James Beard award-winning author of multiple cookbooks. He arrives with his 27-year-old son Cooper from his first marriage and his 12-year-old daughter Cricket.
Ivan is not the best of husbands or fathers and Cooper has been designated as legal guardian for his beloved sister. Esther is unruffled by the presence of celebrity at the funeral luncheon, “they all have to eat,” but is pleased when Ivan asks for her pie crust recipe. Thus the story begins and is sure to enchant all readers.
Relatable Story Tackles Tough Subjects
The Funeral Ladies of Ellerie County is full of relatable characters and situations. Author Claire Swinarski tackles tough subjects including PTSD, dysfunctional families, domestic violence, alcoholism, divorce, old age infirmities and dementia. She also delivers a heartfelt, inspiring story of close-knit families and the most positive aspects of living in a small-town community that is neither saccharine nor predictable.
She writes books and magazine articles for both adults and children and is the host of The Catholic Feminist podcast. Fans of Spencer Quinn’s Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge, Adriana Trigiani’s Big Gap novels, and Robert Dalby’s Piggly Wiggly series among many other authors will enjoy the work of Claire Swinarski.
About Claire Swinarski:
Claire Swinarski is the Edgar Award-nominated author of multiple books for both kids and adults. Her writing has been featured in The Washington Post, Seventeen, Milwaukee Magazine, and many other publications. She lives in small town Wisconsin with her husband and three kids, where she writes books, wears babies, and wrangles bread dough. You can follow her on Instagram @claireswinarski.
