| Fanny McBride is not, at the best of times, very likeable; however, she is unforgettable. The longer I know Fanny, and the more I dislike her, the more I do understand her. Fanny is a victim of her environment and is her own worst enemy. Stubborn, fearful of change and with an overwhelming distrust for education and educated people, Fanny's world is a narrow one. She lives for gossiping and stirring up trouble among her neighbours in the Tyneside tenement house where she's lived for fifty-two years. She has few saving graces, one of which is her capacity for humour; she pokes fun at herself and finds comfort in a cup of tea and a good laugh, no matter how bleak, lonely, and dreary her life becomes. Also, underneath Fanny's ignorance, her slovenly appearance, and her brash, unforgiving nature toward anyone she feels has slighted her or risen above themselves, I discover she has a soft spot in her heart for children; she dotes on her grandson, Corney. Fanny's husband, a good-for-nothing drunk, has died, and her eleven children are all grown and gone except for one--Phil, whom she neither likes nor understands. Raised a staunch Catholic, she believes indisputably that anyone not of the faith is surely headed straight to hell. Her youngest son, Jack--the one she lavishes all her love and attention on--falls in love with a girl of the Salvation Army faith and marries her. Fanny, heartbroken, disowns him. With the knowledge that Phil may soon move out to take a job in London, and with Jack shut out of her life, Fanny realizes she'll be completely alone. She's spent her life wishing for peace and quiet, and now when it looks like she'll finally get her wish, she sees it as the end. She feels unneeded, therefore useless. Eventually, to spite Jack and his wife as much as her need for money, Fanny takes a job and moves outside her familiar surroundings. Unfortunately, this does little to broaden her horizons. Fanny's outlook on life remains unchanged until her sudden death from a heart attack. Then she has a run-in with St. Peter who refuses her entry into heaven and sends her back--to change her ways. Although I first met Fanny more than twenty years ago, she's often in my thoughts. I wonder . . . did she change? What happened to her? I lost Fanny during one of my moves about ten years ago, and it wasn't until last summer that I found her again. Sitting in my sister's dining room one evening, I spied Fanny in the bookcase and was overjoyed. My sister, after much pleading on my part, finally gave me that heartwarming novel by Catherine Cookson. And today Fanny sits in my bookcase, where I can take her out and laugh and cry with her at will. Fanny is--for me--unforgettable because she's utterly believable, and I know her intimately. Through her, I've come to know and understand a little more of my grandmother, my mother, the women in the neighbourhood I grew up in, and ultimately--myself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2000 Marlene McCarty |
| Fanny McBride: An Unforgettable Character by Marlene McCarty |