The Optimist's Daughter By Eudora Welty

Death and dying is an inescapable process that all humans will face at some time in life, whether it is the death of a friend or family member. After the experience of death comes the process of grievance, which is the coping with the loss of the loved one. “The Optimist’s Daughter”, is a novel written by Eudora Welty and is based on a girl named Laurel McKelva Hand and the struggles with grief. Laurel utilizes memory to overcome the grief she experiences, resulting from the loss of her family. Clinton McKelva is a Judge and father of Laurel McKelva. Laurel left the South for the North and later returns home to see her father before he dies. Being gone so long, Laurel’s remembrance of her father is blurry. Laurel and her dad’s relationship

An attempt to seal the past of her husband, but of course neither of these "sealings" into perfection can work: Laurel's attempts to create a perfectly safe past are themselves as much a violation of her parents' lives together as anything that Fay does, or any story told at the funeral; Laurel in her need is being false to her own fullest memories (Schmidt). As Laurel is in her father’s library, she notices a photograph of her and Phil on her father's desk, she replies in her memories, "Her marriage had been of magical ease, and conclusion belonging to Chicago and not here" (Gygax). Laurel distinguishes that she has preserved Phil in her memory as something untouchable, "sealed away," but "now, by her own hands, the past had been raised up"

Laurel encounters a breadboard her husband, Phil Hand, handcrafted for Mrs. McKelva. In Laurel’s eyes, the breadboard was a present and holds memories of her deceased husband and mother, on the contrary the stepmother thought differently of the gift. In Fay’s view, “It’s just an old board, isn’t it?” (Welty). Fay’s point is that it’s a useless board that she used to crack walnuts and kill cigarette butts. Reacting with anger after seeing the breadboard careless use, Laurel suddenly realizes the necessity of remembering the past while looking toward the future (Entzminger). Another example of Fay’s attribute to Laurel’s battle of grief, A heated conversation between Laurel and her stepmom, Fay states, “Past isn’t a thing to me. I belong in the future” (Welty). In other words, Fay believes there is no need to mourn Mr. McKelva’s death since he will no longer be in her life. Fay’s selfishness thoughts assisted Laurel to realize her stepmom is merely the future which will not influence Laurel’s understanding, "Memory are not lived in possessions but lived in the heart and patterns restored by dreams”