A summary of "Odour of Chrysanthemums"

A young woman is standing next to a railroad. She is waiting for her husband to come back from a coal mine. There is someone with her. It is her son.

Her name is Elizabeth Bates. She. looks worried. She is dressed in a shabby clothes. She lives with her children and her husband, John in a miner's cottage near the railroad Her husband should have been back home for some time. Where could he be? Perhaps he's gone to a pub. He has started drinking again these days. He might have been hurt in the mine. She has prepared dinner for him. It is cold now.

In the distance she can see a train coming. The train is carrying coal. When the train came closer a man leant towards her. It was her farther. She asked him if he had seen her husband. He said he hadn't. He looked worried, too. He asked if her husband had been drinking again. She confirmed. Betty gave her father a slice of bread and butter and some tea.

It was getting dark. She came back home. Her pretty girl with fair curls asked her why her father hadn’t come back home. Both the children missed their father and so did Mrs Bates. She went to asked her neighbour about John. Her husband works in the coal mine, too. He said he had seen John at work but John must have stayed a bit longer. He also said John might have gone to The Yew Tree Pub after work. He couldn’t have been at the Prince of Wales pub, because he didn’t see him there when he dropped there for a pint of beer.

When Mrs Bates was coming back home she looked at the mine’s chimneys and heard some strange noises a lift coming down. Her heart thumped with fear. What might have happened? Somebody’s hurt. She was thinking of her husband. As soon as she came back home her mother-in-law brought some sad news. “My child,” she said “you must be brave.”

A few hours later some men from the mines came. They had a man on a stretcher. It was John Bates. “Where do you want to have him, Mrs Bates?” they asked. “in the next room” she answered. “What’ the matter with him?” she asked. “I’m afraid he’s dead, Mum.” One of the men answered.

John was covered with coal dust. The two women started washing his body. They were weeping and washing in silence.