How to Wash the Dead Lenten, pansy, crocus, snowdrop Lewellen Hubbard was the corpse laid out before me. With my sponge soaked in sweet oil—Lenten and crocus blossom—I worked around the old scars on her arms: slash marks…
When I lived in Oregon, the voice of the character, Vera, came to me strongly during a writing retreat. I’d hoped to spend time on a novel revision, but nothing else came through until I got Vera on the page. I had been researching the burial traditions of my Southern ancestors and the current movement to return to those ways after learning the rituals of Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist traditions in seminary. Soon, my notebooks were scribbled with Vera washing and communing with the dead.
While I don’t wash folks as a hospital chaplain, I’ve been with many patients and families through illness and death. I wanted to lift up how beautiful it is, how holy, to be with a person as they leave the world. To counter death, I wanted the heart of mother-love for Vera. Love for Luli tethers Vera to the living world.
I’ve written quite a bit about barning tobacco, having interviewed my parents and relatives who were a part of the industry. And there’s a great Jimmie Rodgers song Bill Monroe made famous called “Mule Skinner Blues.” The song and those stories were in my mind when Vera’s voice came to me, and because I’m tender about the treatment of animals, I liked the idea of a sexy mule skinner (the one who drove the mule along the rows) working the mule without whipping. As I wanted to futurize the story, I changed tobacco to hemp. In addition to Vera coming to love the elder Mr. H., the mule skinner piqued her interest enough that she remained in the role of caretaking to the living.
Finally, the listing of herbs and flowers are an expression of my multireligiosity by bringing what one would place on the altar throughout the pagan seasonal festivals. These lists serve to move the story through time by way of our senses.
I like to imagine what happens after the end of the story. I hope that’s true for the reader also.
JENNIFER SPRINGSTEEN is a hospital chaplain and writer in Leesburg, Virginia. Her writing has won several awards including an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship, two Multnomah County Regional Arts & Culture Council Awards, and a Pushcart Prize nomination. She is represented by Joanna MacKenzie of Nelson Literary Agency. Jennifer and her husband live with Sam the cat. Their daughter is a college sophomore who visits when hungry.
