Suggesting the family go to Tennessee to visit relatives instead of Florida for vacationing represents but her first alteration. Her suggestions come supported however, as she adds, "Here this fellow calls himself the Misfit is a loose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida." giving the first clue the family will meet their doom before the end of the story. Overlooking the grandmother's warning, the family decides to pursue their trip as planned. When the day arrives for the family to depart on their road trip, instead of arguing, the grandmother climbs in the car before anyone else, just as June Star predicts. "She wouldn't stay at home for a million bucks," June Star said. "Afraid she"d miss something. She has to go everywhere we go." (O"Connor 385). She dresses in a manner so that if anyone finds her dead on the highway, they shall characterize her as a lady. She wore a navy blue sailor hat with white violets on the brim, to match her navy blue dress covered with tiny white polka-dots. Her white organdy, lacy collars and cuffs completed the outfit. O"Connor added this information in order to represent the grandmother preparing for death. The graciousness of the grandmother is humorously described, but should be taken quite seriously. The description O"Connor gives of the grandmother's outfit with her collar and cuffs, and lace and violet gives her a "southern geniality" that is indeed "dressed to kill. But although she agrees to follow through with the excursion, she refuses to go with out her cat Pitty Sing. Afraid that the cat will accidentally asphyxiate himself on the gas stove if left behind, she secretly stows Pitty Sing in her basket. This scenario, foreshadowing death, is an insight into the events to come. .
Foreshadowing continues later on the trip as a sequence of events transpires that hints of the family's impending doom. After driving down the road a while, the family passes a cotton field with five or six graves right in the middle of it.
