The Flowers That Never Reached the Kitchen Table

In 1987, Margaret Ellison of Tupelo, Mississippi, kept a pristine house. Every Sunday she arranged fresh-cut hydrangeas on the foyer table, polished the silver until it gleamed, and set out linen napkins for the church ladies' luncheon. She tithed exactly ten percent, never missed a Wednesday prayer meeting, and could recite the order of worship from memory. But her husband, Earl, ate dinner alone most nights.…