Friend of My Youth
Alice Munro
 A story about the narrator's mother. It starts with a dream the narrator has in which her mother has not died. She then remembers a story that her mother used to tell her about a family she used to live with in the days before she was married. The story then changes to a third-person narrative about the Grieves family, specifically the two daughters, Flora and Ellie. This family is a rather odd one, as they live in a house with no electricity, no plumbing, and no oven. Other characters in the story note this as peculiar because the family is rather rich and is not religiously against these comforts. Flora is set up to marry a man named Robert. However Ellie is incredibly dependent on Flora and spends most of her time in the company of Robert and Flora. Flora wishes to remain chaste until her wedding with Robert. However, her father dies before the wedding can take place, so the wedding is postponed six months so that it will be over a year after the funeral of her father. Months later, Robert is getting married, not to Flora but to Ellie. The two are getting married because Ellie is pregnant. Flora takes this in stride and helps her sister prepare for the wedding. Ellie becomes somewhat of an invalid and remains bedridden or close to home for the rest of the story. She is constantly pregnant and miscarries or stillbirths all of her children. Flora and Robert have built up partitions in the house, so as to divide it in two to grant the married couple privacy. Flora cleans the entire house vigorously and caters to her sister's every ridiculous whim. Ellie has become completely dependent on Flora and is not very grateful. Ellie becomes very awkward around guests and essentially alienates Flora from most of the community. Ellie eventually becomes very sick so a nurse is called for. Nurse Atkinson arrives at the house in a car, something that the Grieves have never used, and takes over the house. She demands expensive soaps and creams in an attempt to keep Ellie alive. The mother character, from whom the narrator has heard the story, takes an immediate disliking to the nurse after meeting her. She thinks that the nurse is using the creams and soaps on herself instead of Ellie. Eventually, Ellie dies from her illness. Nurse Atkinson, since she has no other immediate cases, continues to live in Flora's house and complains constantly about the lack of luxuries. The townspeople assume that now that Ellie has passed, Flora and Robert will get married. However, it is Robert and Nurse Atkinson that end up getting married. The three live in the house together and the nurse makes many changes. She paints her half of the house, installs electricity and plumbing, and buys an oven. The mother character then moves away and gets married to her own husband. The only further development's in Flora's story comes from correspondence exchanged between Flora and the narrator's mother. Flora is content with her life and is not outraged at the turn of events that cause her to lose Robert again or the butchering of her house. Eventually, Flora moves out of the house, if she was kicked out or voluntarily left is not clear, and has to work in a store to sustain herself. She has been forced to adapt modern ways and change her entire lifestyle. The narrator's mother wanted to write a book about Flora's life. She wishes to call it Maiden Lady. It would be a novel that would portray Flora as the poor, unfortunate, quaint soul that she is. The Narrator also wishes to write a book about Flora, but with her as a rather evil character, resistant to change and technology. The narrator wonders if she has seen Flora, run into her in a department store and wonders what she would have felt if she met her. The narrator then reminisces about her mother. She mentions how she felt cheated by the reprieve granted to her by the dream. She feels that this vision of her mother changes the "lump of love" that she has for her and that it feels like a "phantom pregnancy".