"Bush's Mourning Feast"

Honestly, I was a little bit confused reading this passage. From what I could understand, the narrator was addressing someone who had passed or had been taken away, possibly a child. Bush, the grandmother, cooked a ceremonial, traditional feast as a part of the mourning process. The community was invited and attended even though it was clear that they may not be accustomed to this tradition but they knew that it was important to her and they could relate to loss. I thought that this showed great insight into the values of community that are emphasized among this group. Spirituality plays a big role in Bush's grieving process as she offers up food to the spirits and gives away precious belongings as a way of redistributing or processing grief. By the end of the meal, it seems as if there was a mutual understanding between everyone at the feast. They then understood and respected the tradition that they had just been a part of and related to the grief that Bush was experiencing. There was a part in the reading that I had a particularly hard time understanding involving the mother of the child and Bush's effort to protect the child from the mother's "coldness" so I will be interested to see how our class discussion clears that up.