There are many legends surrounding tombs. The living frequently reinvent the lives of the dead.”
-- Violette (4 )

Importance: Violette is very aware that memories are not always reliable. In this passage, she is talking about the fact that people claim to have seen the ghosts of two of the women buried at Brancion-en-Chalon cemetery.

Time unravels grief. However immense it is. Apart from the grief of a mother or a father who has lost a child.”
-- Violette (chapter 15)

Importance: Violette is again talking from personal experience. She has seen people who visited the cemetery on a daily basis in the days after a death. After their grief lessens, they stop visiting regularly.

I prefer youngsters to be full of life, annoying, noisy, drunk, stupid, rather than in coffins, followed by people bowed with grief.”
-- Violette (18 )

Importance: Over the years, young people have occasionally thrown stones at Violette's cottage or knocked on her door late at night. Though she...