Character Analysis
Deborah was Lily's mother. She grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and is buried there. She moved down to South Carolina to be near August, her family's former housekeeper, after her mother passed. She met T. Ray Owens, got pregnant, and then got married. The marriage turned sour for her fairly quickly, and she decided to leave T. Ray and Lily when Lily was four, fleeing to August's house to regroup. After three months, she decided to go back and fetch Lily, but she died when a gun accidentally went off (in Lily's hand) in the middle of a fight she was having with T. Ray. Finding out how lost and sad her mother was toward the end of her life is a devastating blow to Lily toward the end of the novel.