Character Analysis
Lily describes May as one of the sweetest and gentlest women you could ever hope to meet, and certainly one of the most empathetic. Lily notices immediately that May is a bit unusual, remarking that she had "one of those odd grins that let you know she was not an altogether normal person" (4.19). As August puts it, she is "special" (5.94), and she has been since her twin sister, April, passed away when they were teenagers. Since then, when an unpleasant topic is mentioned, May often gets so upset that she starts uncontrollably sobbing. To help work out some of this emotion, she constructed a kind of "wailing wall" where she could go when she was upset and leave prayers for people who were suffering, which seemed to help her somewhat.
Unfortunately, when Zach, a close friend of the Boatwrights, is arrested for a crime he didn't commit, it's more than May can bear and she commits suicide.