The Narrator's Mother

The narrator's mother (Mrs S) appears only in the remembered pre-War scenes, but she is vividly drawn. She is trusting, warm-hearted and generous to a fault. She hands over her most precious possessions to Mrs Dorling without any agreement or receipt, believing it would be "an insult" even to suggest such a thing, and she admires Mrs Dorling for the "risk" she supposedly runs by carrying the goods away. She is also caring and grateful, worrying that Mrs Dorling might get "a crick in her back" from the heavy crockery. Her generous naivety makes her an easy victim of Mrs Do …