Lily finds healing and strength within the female community she joins herself to. Because she lost her mother at a very young age, she holds the burden of thinking she killed her mother from her abusive father, T-Ray; "I killed my mother when I was four years old. She was all I ever wanted and I took her away." Without having a mother in her life, Lily heals and becomes a woman herself in the Boatwright home. Seeing the way The Daughters of Mary treat each other she learns the power of a female community and sisterhood. Within the novel, the importance of female community ties into the theme of motherhood and love. Lily finds motherly love with the Boatwright sisters in all different styles, for example, August helps Lily open up and cry to her as if she would to a mother; Lily could never have opened up to her father or Rosaleen.