- Rose's petition to save a very old tree attracts the ire of Freida Claxton, a misanthropic old woman, on whose property the tree stands. At a public hearing, Rose gets angry at Mrs. Claxton and tells her to "drop dead," which she does. Rose blames herself for Mrs. Claxton's death, so the girls decide to pay her one final act of kindness.—Attmay
- The episode opens at home as the women rendezvous. They have been circulating a petition to save a tree which is over 200 years old on their block of Richmond Street. Dorothy looks at the signatures Sophia collected and notices some of the people on it are actually dead. Blanche returns with one signature after being out for three hours. Having enjoyed the signer's company she simply returned to freshen up before going out to pursue the next signature. Then Rose returns with a petition copy full of signatures, but not from the cynical Frieda Claxton, the neighbor from across the street. The tree is on her property. It seems Mrs. Claxton is indifferent to the cause and doesn't mind the municipality taking the tree down for road expansion, and Dorothy concludes it will happen without her support. Rose compares Ms. Claxton to a cynical resident of St. Olaf, but the others scoff at her story as usual. They feel that lonesome people like her simply need kindness to bring them around.
Later, Rose comes home and tells the girls she had tried to persuade Mrs. Claxton to change her mind with daily deliveries of pastries, and she succeeded at last by offering her a prune danish, and she has agreed to save the tree. The day of the hearing at city hall, the women are glad to see Mrs. Claxton, but their efforts to be neighborly are met with rude observations of Blanche's boudoir habits (which she can see from her window), Dorothy's lack of such, and other insults from the nosy misanthrope. She tells Rose she only agreed to help them so she could still get the pastries, and she doesn't like people or their efforts to be kindly toward her.
Inside the hearing Mrs. Claxton tells the council that she doesn't care if the city wants to tear the tree down. Dorothy tells the council about the petition containing 60 signatures from residents of the block. Mrs. Claxton interrupts, telling the council that concrete is cleaner. Dorothy then offers to show photos of the tree they want to save, and Mrs. Claxton offers in turn to show the suggestive pictures she took while observing Blanche from a vantage point at her house. A council member asks if other people were identifiable in the photos, and Blanche tells Mrs. Claxton and the council speaker to both shut up.
Rose asks Mrs. Claxton how she can hate other living things, and she replies that she hates her. Uncharacteristically miffed, Rose says she refuses to waste any more time with her, saying she should let the others have their say, and that if she dislikes that she should drop dead. Suddenly Mrs. Claxton slumps to the floor, and Sophia announces that the curmudgeon has indeed dropped dead.
The incident causes sleepless nights for Rose, who mopes in the kitchen and blames herself for "killing" Mrs. Claxton. Dorothy explains that her death was caused naturally by her advanced age and declining health. Blanche suggests that Rose attend the funeral, but she says there will be none because the woman had no family or friends, so she will be interred in a pauper's grave. Blanche says she expects a lot of people at her funeral, relating a story in which she staged a mock funeral for herself when she was 16 in retaliation for not being chosen winner of the Miss Magnolia Blossom pageant. She ended up being sent by her enraged father to a girls' catholic school as a result of the stunt. Sophia comes into the kitchen, also unable to sleep, and Rose and Dorothy fill her in. She suggests they chip in for a funeral themselves, as it will show God that they have respect for human life.
They go to the mortuary and meet Mr. Pfeiffer (with a non-silent "p"), who observes the four and mistakenly thinks Sophia is their mother and the funeral is being planned in advance for her. When they relate that the arrangements are for a friend, he first suggests the most expensive and popular casket, but Dorothy reminds him they are on a budget and want something simple and inexpensive. He shows them a cheaper casket, and then Blanche points out a pine box in the catalog, which is the cheapest. They accept the arrangements and plan the funeral for Friday.
The girls end up being the only attendees at the memorial, and Sophia listens to a ballgame on her earbuds until Dorothy takes away her radio. Finally a mourner shows up and, at their urging, provides a touching eulogy for a woman who she says did anonymous charitable deeds such as working for years in a leper colony. She then utters the name Sylvia Rubenstein, and they all realize she is at the wrong memorial service. When she is told Mrs. Claxton is in the pine box, the woman kicks it before she leaves. Rose is inconsolable and leaves crying, because she feels Mrs. Claxton's life made no difference to anybody, but the others feel they did the right thing. Mr. Pfeiffer then returns and tells the women that an amateur employee cremated Mrs. Claxton by mistake and gives them her ashes.
Later, Rose returns home and tells the girls she spread the ashes of Mrs. Claxton around the old tree and informed the council at city hall. Reluctant to disturb a final resting place, the council agreed to let the tree remain. The girls gather at the door to look across the street at it, and they watch as a dog in need of a tree to lift his leg upon pays his final respects.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content