Big Mama's Funeral Summary

Ninety-two-year-old Big Mama is the matriarch of a huge clan in the community of Macondo, which appears elsewhere in this collection. Father Anthony Isabel, who also appears in "One Day After Saturday," ministers to the spiritual needs of Big Mama in the last weeks of her life. Due to her alleged wealth, numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and sisters-in-law gather in a protracted wake that precedes the reading of her will and disposition of her estate. Her physician, convinced that Big Mama is dying, orders salves, stimulants and suppositories. Big Mama lists among her possessions three containers of gold coins buried near her house that had never been found despite numerous and vigorous attempts. Big Mama also lists her immaterial possessions, including the colors of the national flag, the Supreme Court, beauty queens, transcendental speeches, and the underprivileged and political...