The speaker is writing to her sister Sue, whose birth and death dates sit under the title. The poem says it has been twenty-four years since Sue died, and that her death changed the speaker's life: she resolved to live "more worthy," left work she doubted, and began to write. But the loss also shook her faith. She has drifted toward "something maybe like god," though not the one she grew up trusting, since that god let Sue die despite their prayers and allowed "so damned much pain." That blunt phrase is the poem's angriest moment.
The ending turns quiet. The speaker describes a pottery monk Sue gave her, smiling with folded hands beside a jade tree, and a photograph on her study wall. Sue's face looks thoughtful, her eyes fixed on something the speaker cannot see. The mood is sorrowful but steady. Grief has not gone away, and neither have the questions, but the objects and the unanswered gaze suggest love that continues.