An Encounter with Mrs. Hooper

The church group's bus rolls toward the Odyssey Retirement Hall, and John Whittaker reminds the kids that the people they are about to meet may be old in years but still need friendship and a little understanding. Each child has drawn a name and a room number. Lucy Cunningham-Schultz has pulled Mr. Morton in room 307, a ninety-seven-year-old who fought in both world wars and has stories for days. Donna Barclay, who has never done this before, has pulled room 754 and a woman named Mary Hooper. When Lucy hears the name, all she will say is that Mrs. Hooper was difficult, that deep down she must be a nice lady, and that Donna should not touch her flowers and plants.

Inside, Donna runs into Richard Maxwell, who works part-time at the home as an orderly. He walks her to room 754, laughs at the idea that anyone could be friends with Mary Hooper, and bets she cannot do it. He also warns her about the flowers.

The visit goes badly. Mrs. Hooper is watering her drooping plants and wants nothing to do with a girl who was handed her name on a card. She says her family took her house of twenty years and put her in this place to rot, then tries to frighten Donna with a story about being beaten with rubber hoses at night. Donna bolts, and spends the rest of the evening sitting alone on the bus.

The next day Mr. Whittaker finds Donna and Lucy and asks Donna not to give up. Mrs. Hooper is lonely, he explains, and her sharp tongue is a smoke screen so nobody will see how heartbroken she is. He hands Donna a mixture he has invented for her flowers and asks her to deliver it, promising she need not stay a minute longer than that.

Donna rides her bike over and finds Mrs. Hooper stuck in bed after a long morning with the doctor, fretting that her flowers are dying. Donna pours a careful drop into the soil, admires a blossom called Burning Love that her own mother grows, and suggests moving the plants out from under the air vent and over by the sunny window. Mrs. Hooper allows that it is not a bad idea, and asks the girl her name.

Visit by visit, something thaws. Donna coaxes her through four wobbly laps around the room - the best walking she has done in weeks. Mrs. Hooper admits she broke her hip not long after her husband died eight months ago, and that she has not wanted to get better since. Donna tells her about Karen, a best friend who died of cancer, and about how talking and crying can help. Mrs. Hooper calls that rubbish, mentions a daughter who never comes, and hears Donna wonder aloud whether the daughter simply stays away because Mrs. Hooper is angry all the time.

That thought sends Donna to Mr. Whittaker's office, where she borrows the phone and calls a woman named Barbara Mansfield.

When Donna next arrives at the home, Miss Monroe warns her that Mrs. Hooper has thrown a tantrum and torn up her own flowers. Donna goes in anyway, and this time she refuses to run. She will not cry, she will not leave, and she can be every bit as stubborn as Mrs. Hooper. At last the truth comes out: it is Mrs. Hooper's birthday, the first since her husband died that she has wanted anybody to know, and no card has come. Donna tells her she checked the files and has brought something better than a card, but only if Mrs. Hooper promises to stop being so tough. Mrs. Hooper promises.

Barbara walks through the door with her husband and children waiting out in the car, and for the first time her daughter can remember, Mary Hooper cries. Mother and daughter apologize to each other and hold on, and Donna, watching from the doorway, wishes her friend a happy birthday.