Almira Todd is an unusual character in American literature. She’s a widow in her 60s and lives in a coastal village in Maine. She gathers herbs in wild places and makes cough syrups, cures and elixirs in a cauldron on the stove. She also makes beer.
She’s the landlady of the unnamed narrator of Sarah Orne Jewett’s The Country of the Pointed Firs.
Mrs. Todd is not impressed with the abilities of the men she knows. She lets the preacher sail the dory to call on a troubled young woman who lives alone on a remote island. But when he loses control of the boat, Mrs. Todd knocks him out of the way and grabs the sail.
When she gets some women together for an expedition, she says:
we don't want to carry no men folks havin' to be considered every minute an' takin' up all our time.
Of a minor character who is otherwise forgettable, she says:
he did not make a habit of always opposin', like some men.
Males are not at the center of The Country of the Pointed Firs. The book was published in 1896, and I suppose you could think of Ms. Jewett as a feminist who was ahead of her time.
But Mrs. Todd reminds me of my grandmother, a woman of strong character and stout heart.
I’m not sure Mrs. Todd fits in any category. I wish I’d gotten to know her years ago.
• Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs; Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1896. I found a copy through Project Gutenberg. The quotations are on pp. 45 and 139.
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