Kate Chopin: The story of an hour

I thought Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" was quite sad at first because Mrs. Mallard was an older woman of ill health was about to hear the news of her husband's death. But as I read on to see how Mrs. Mallard took the news I was quite surprised. I even found it funny because generally when you read a story and it tells you a character has experienced tragedy the character expresses grief. But in this case as the story went on Mrs. Mallard expressed relief and felt "free, free, free!"