Summary “in the Family” by Maria Elena Llano

“In the Family” by Maria Elena Llano, is the story of a family who discovered they had a magic mirror that reflected people already dead. Clara a very prideful girl who always imposed her will and whishes on everybody, after returning from her vacation, ate a salad that Eulalia passed from the other sided of the mirror. Clara passed away immediately and soon she became part of the inhabitants of the mirror.

The family had a large very old mirror in their living room, one day by accident they discovered that the mirror reflected everything in front of it, nothing changed in the mirror, except the people, the people in the mirror were family members who had already passed away. The family decided to keep this as a secret “since after all, it was nobody else’s business” (In The Family, p. 138).

Clara was a prideful, bold and determined girl, who was among the few women in the country who earned a dentist degree. She never practiced her profession but she always had an opinion on everything. She was coming back from her usual month long vacations at the beach and the family was afraid how she would react to the magical mirror. At first she wouldn’t believe it but after a careful examination, she sat herself in from of the mirror and realized that the reflection on the mirror was exactly the same as the living room. But instead of her being sitting down on the chair it was Gus, who was in the chair. Gus was an adopted family friend, who died sometime ago.

Clara as expected one day moved the mirror to the dining room, so that the whole family can enjoy eating meals together with the departed family members. One night while the whole family was eating and chatting together on both sides of the mirror, Clara asked the departed Eulalia to pass a salad from the other side. Clara “gobbled up” the salad “smiling mischievously at the novelty of it all” (In The Family, p. 140). Immediately she began to grow pale and she died soon after that.

Clara is now on the other side...