Oranges are not the only fruit finale

After finishing the book Oranges are not the Only fruit by Jeanette Winterson, I felt that the ending of the book was a very happy one. At the end of the book, Jeanette leaves her mother after Elsie dies, because her mother and the people at church disliked her for being a lesbian. After she leaves, Jeanette eventually meets her mother a couple of years later in Liverpool England. Upon meeting Jeanette in Liverpool, Jeanette's mother asks her how her life has been and if she is happy. Jeanette states that she misses her family and wants to start over, in which they reconcile and become closer. I was a little surprised at the ending because I thought that after Jeanette left, she would never see her mother again. I also noticed that Jeanette's mother had changed significantly, since she was now working at an electronics music store and wasn't in touch with the other people from the church. I felt that the mother changed a lot at the end of the book, because she became more accepting of her daughter's life and allowed her to live it the way she wanted to. She still was very religious, but she didn't want it to cause a rift between her and her daughter's relationship. A big question I still have about the novel is why the father didn't play a huge role, he was rarely mentioned and it made me wonder how close Jeanette was to her father. I was surprised that the ending was a happy one, since the previous book we read in the class did not have a happy ending.