Sue Monk Kidd has a very interesting book The Secret Life of Bees. Where I am in the book now, the question is, is Lily's mother dead or has T-Ray been lying to her this whole time. I really don't beleive she is dead. T-Ray is really mean to Lily and he acts like she is not even there, all he cares about is his peach stand. The reason why i think he is so mean to Lily is because he is taking out his frustrations on her because i think he pushed Lily's mother away from her.