did lonnie die
did lonnie die or did he survive his suicide attempt
shareno he lived but after iris finds him in the hospital she asks lud to let her stay with him until lonnie got out of the hospital. she goes home to pack their things, throws out several bottles of vodka (implying her plan to quit) and leaves, letting her mother assume he was dead. it was confusing to me too
shareI didn't see anything confusing there.
I was startled that the grandmother just assumed he would be dead, and began her 'comfort' talk, instead of first asking 'is he alive?' In that situation, I certainly would ask and hope that he was alive, until I was sure that he was dead! I'm not saying she didn't care about her grandson at all, but the fact that she didn't even hope and just assumed he was dead when nobody said so, makes me think that, well, she didn't really care all that much. It seemed that by attempting suicide he somehow became a loser to her, just like his father. Her speech that Lonnie and his father might both have had some kind of 'flaw' about them and nobody could do anything about it - which was supposed to be comforting - was in fact really offensive, at least I thought so, and I would certainly hate it if I was Iris.
better sorry than safe