Against the odds her baby boy is born healthy – and everyone’s lives are blessed by this miracle. It later is revealed the birth put strain on her kidneys and she has to undergo a transplant. M’Lynn steps up and donates hers. It fails to take, and not long after Shelby goes into a coma then dies. It’s through the career-best performances by the actresses that we feel the sting of her passing.
That’s when the tears start. As Shelby slowly slips away, and the beep of the heart monitor recedes, M’Lynn holds her hand and strokes it with her own. As she drives to pick up her Grandson from his Aunt’s, to collect that little boy who is the only piece of her daughter left, the tears stain her cheeks.
At Shelby’s graveside, the women gather to comfort M’Lynn. If you can watch this scene without unleashing torrents of tears than you may have contracted something (like a parasite) or possibly sold your soul to the devil. As M’Lynn describes the moment her daughter died, you can sense your lip starting to tremble:
“I just sat there. I just held Shelby’s hand. There was no noise, no tremble, just peace. Oh god. I realize as a woman how lucky I am. I was there when that wonderful creature drifted into my life and I was there when she drifted out. It was the most precious moment of my life.”
When M’Lynn finally lets go of her anger and grief, you cannot help but feel that same swell of loss as she cries:
“I’m fine! I can jog all the way to Texas and back, but my daughter can’t! She never could! Oh God! I am so mad I don’t know what to do! I wanna know why! I wanna know why Shelby’s life is over! I wanna know how that baby will ever know how wonderful his mother was! Will he ever know what she went through for him! Oh God I wanna know why? Why? Lord, I wish I could understand!”
The earlier aphorism spoken by Shelby is echoed here, this time in her Mother’s place as M’Lynn has had her thirty minutes of something wonderful: her daughter. Her daughter, who sacrificed her own life so as she calls it, “a little piece of immortality” could live on. And with four friends surrounding her grave they represent the life Shelby desired but never had. Truvy, with her successful business and warm-hearted nature; Annelle, a young woman on the cusp of pregnancy and marriage; and Clairee and Ouiser, proof of life-long friendship.
There lies the real sadness in her death. All those she has left behind have attained the simple dreams she so desperately wanted to claim as her own.
