Delsie hangs up more pictures for her “Wall of the Left Behind.” She decides to add family pictures as well and finds Grammy’s photo album, where she sees an old photo from one of Delsie’s birthday parties. She realizes that the woman standing behind her in the photo is her mother. Grammy comes home, and Delsie asks Grammy if her mother returned when Delsie was a little girl. Grammy admits that her mother came home for her third birthday but then left again. When Delsie demands the truth as to why her mother left, Grammy tells her that she made her leave because “she was doing things a person just shouldn’t be doing when they are taking care of a child” (115). Nevertheless, she would welcome Delsie’s mother back if she would stop doing those things.

Delsie is shocked and angry at Grammy. Grammy explains that she misses Mellie but that Mellie lost the positive parts of herself, which instead live on in Delsie. Delsie tells Grammy that she does not care if she carries her mother inside her: She wants her actual presence. Grammy explains that Mellie loved Delsie but that Grammy, Papa Joseph, Henry, and Esme wanted to keep Delsie safe.