Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

FEBRUARY 7, 1947

That rainy morning, Onzell had asked Stump and Idgie to go down to the woods by the river and get some pinecones for Miss Ruth’s sickroom. She was wiping Ruth’s face with a damp cloth.

“Hold on, Miz Ruth, it’s gonna be over soon. It’s gonna be over soon, baby.”

Ruth looked back up at her and tried to smile, but the pain in her eyes was terrible. There was no rest from it now; no sleep, no relief.

Onzell, a charter member of the Mount Zion Primitive Baptist Church and the lead singer in the Halleluiah Choir, who believed with all her heart and soul in a merciful God, had made a decision.

No God, anywhere, certainly not her sweet, precious Jesus, Who died for our sins and loved us above all things, had ever meant anyone to suffer like this.

So it was with perfect joy and a pure heart that she gave Ruth the morphine that she’d been saving, bit by bit, day by day. Onzell watched Ruth’s body relax for the first time in weeks, and then she sat down by the bed and held her little skeleton of a hand and began to rock and sing.

In the sweet by and by … there’s a land that’s fairer by day

And by faith we can see it afar …

For the Father waits over the way

To prepare us in a dwelling place

There in the sweet by and by … we shall meet on the beautiful shore

In the sweet by and by …

Onzell had her eyes closed as she was singing, but she felt the room fill up with sunlight that had broken through the clouds. The warmth of the sun made her cry tears of joy. As she covered the mirror and stopped the clock by the bed, she thanked her sweet Jesus for taking Miss Ruth home.