Mrs. Dubose

I wanted you to see something about her—I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninty-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew.

I’ve read To Kill a Mockingbird
A dozen times or more. I know that
Mrs. Dubose is a morphine addict,
But determines to die free of all constraints,
And so torments her mind and body.

She dies, cantankerous, free.

Atticus’s perceptive teaching,
Her fiery perseverance,
The post-death reconciliation,

That, in this one case, a wrong is made right—

I weep every time.