The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

Rhonda and Arletha, two women in a relationship, wake up to snow and ice each day of the winter in the city where they live. Neither of them is used to this type of weather, having both grown up in the South. Arletha has a teaching job at a university in the city, and Rhonda works a clerk job at the courthouse. There is tension between them on the morning that the story takes place. Arletha is longing for home (Georgia) and brings it up to Rhonda the night before. It seems to make Rhonda sad or bitter, because of the neglect her family showed her back home; she also reminds Arletha that her home is wherever they are together.

Arletha lists the many things that they both miss about living in the South. She says that they lost all of those things when she and Rhonda chose each other. Arletha reflects on her relationship with her mother—she was very loved, but as a teenager, she didn’t know if her mother would love her the same if she knew about her sexuality. Arletha’s relationship with her mother is strained because of her choice to be with Rhonda and move away.