Fresh Water For Flowers

 A horrible mother-in-law is an appalling character in the novel Fresh Water For Flowers by Valerie Perrin. The book was translated into English from French by Hildegarde Serle. This moth-in-law spoils her son. She thinks no one is good enough for boy. When he takes up with Violette they get a job as a railroad crossing. Their job is to lower the boards so cars can't run into the train. Violette does all the work because he is lazy. When Violette has a baby the mother-in-law doesn't like the name of the child so she calls her Catherine instead. She thinks Violette isn't taking good care of the girl. She encourages her son to marry Violette to prevent Violette from leaving her son and taking the girl away from them. When the girl is 7 the grandparents take her on vacation. The girl makes friends with another girl. The grandparents want the girls to go to a rural camp for a week together. During the night at the first day at camp a fire breaks out in the kitchen and three girls die including Violette's daughter. The school blames the 3 girls for leaving their bedroom and making hot cocoa and leaving the pot burning on the stove. After the death Violette leaves her husband and gets a job at a cemetery taking care of the graves, assisting with burials, and selling flowers. One day she meets a police officer who researches what really happened to start the fire. The fire was not the fault of the girls. I never saw this ending coming. This was a great story to read.