As Bright As Heaven

Pauline Adler Bright stands at the grave of her infant son, Henry. She knew that Henry was different from her girls the moment he was born. He was a calm, angelic child who died of heart failure in infancy. Pauline thinks, “I have come out from under the shroud of sorrow a different person” (6). She wants to leave their town and encourages her husband, Thomas Bright, to accept the offer of his uncle Fred to move to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and work with him as an undertaker.

Margaret “Maggie” Bright is 12 and likes spending time in the curing barn where the tobacco dries before they roll it into cigars. While hiding in the barn, Maggie overhears her parents discussing the move to Philadelphia. Her father says that he wants a better life for their family. Maggie asks her father about leaving her friends and Henry, and her father reminds her that Henry is in heaven. Maggie thinks about leaving the butterflies she saw in a store in Allentown. Her father says that Philadelphia will have more of everything.