 The church is full of veterans who knew and loved her father, although her mother Ethel (Shirley MacLaine) is sitting out on the church porch, smoking and nursing a hangover.Ethel is totally indifferent about Chuck's death, which only her friend Jack Etty (Christopher Plummer) seems to understand.Marie is furious with her mother and with her implication that she slept with many of the veterans when they were all young, but then Ethel relents and says that she was always faithful.