What is the meaning of this quote below from "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor? "She would have been a good woman ... if there had...

Atthe end of the story, the Misfit and his
criminal associates havedispatched the rest of the family, and The Misfit has taken the
brightyellow shirt with blue parrots that Bailey had been wearing. The onlytwo that are left are
Grandmother and The Misfit. Grandmother is talkingwith The Misfit the whole while trying to
flatter her way into his goodgraces so that he spares her life.

Grandmotheris
a complaining, nagging sort of person who apparently unceasinglycauses trouble for others in her
family through her selfishness andcarelessness, trouble such as insisting they detour to visit
an oldplantation in Georgia that is in reality in ... Tennessee. At the momentthat she realizes
that The Misfit is going to take her life also, shestops being self-centered; she stops her
incessant barrage of words; shereaches out to someone else in some show of compassion:

Sheopened and closed her mouth several times before anything came
out ...she found herself saying, "Jesus. Jesus," meaning Jesus will help
you,

WhenGrandmother reaches out to touch The Misfit
saying, "You're one of myown children!" she confirms the hint that comes earlier,
"his face wasas familiar to her as if she had known him all her life but she couldnot
recall who he was," and we realize Grandmother is in fact theMisfit's
mother.

Itis because she is his mother that he can indirectly assert that
shewasn't much of a good woman and that the shock of facing a violent endto her life has forced
her out of her harmful selfishness and,therefore: "she would of been a good woman ... if it
had been somebodythere to shoot her every minute of her life." In other words, if she
hadhad a similar shock every moment of her life, she would have beensincere, caring and
thoughtful--as she was for a moment just before herend--instead of complaining, nagging,
spiteful and unceasinglytroublesome.