Norm Hartsfield

Norm Hartsfield is a lineman for Central States Power whose accidental death transforms the circumstances of his family. Though he appears only through the account of his fatal accident and its aftermath, the loss leaves his wife, Deborah Ann Hartsfield, with two young sons and becomes the absence against which Brady Hartsfield measures later threats to his place in the family.

Work and Death

Norm works climbing utility poles for Central States Power and earns a good salary, but he hopes for more. While working beside Route 51, he is electrocuted by twenty thousand volts of the company’s electricity. His partner, who has just been told that the outage has been found and repairs are nearly complete, hears a crackling sound and looks up in time to see Norm fall forty feet from the cherry-picker basket. Norm’s left hand has been melted, and his uniform sleeve is on fire. The account leaves the precise cause uncertain: he may have been distracted by his ambitions, lost his balance, or reached the wrong way to steady himself. Whatever the explanation, the fall ends his life.

Family and Financial Aftermath

At the time of Norm’s death, Brady is eight and Frankie is three. The family has less than two thousand dollars in savings, despite Norm’s salary, and a mortgage on its North Side home. An insurance policy and an additional seventy thousand dollars from Central States Power provide immediate financial relief. The company gives the payment in exchange for Deborah Ann’s signature on a document absolving it of blame for Norm’s death. She uses the money to pay off the mortgage and buy a new car, taking the settlement as a large sum without recognizing that this source of money will not replenish itself. Norm’s death therefore brings both material security and a lasting limit: the family’s apparent windfall cannot replace his income or presence.

The Absence Norm Leaves Behind

After Norm dies, Deborah Ann returns to work as a hairdresser. About six months into her widowhood, she begins seeing a junior bank executive she describes to Brady as a man with prospects. The boyfriend enters the family home and calls Brady champ and Frankie little champ, but Brady dislikes him and privately wishes him dead, provided his mother is not with him. Brady has already learned to conceal his feelings behind a happy face. He regards the new man as an intruder who has no right to take his father’s place, and concludes that occupying that place is his own responsibility. Norm’s death thus remains consequential not only as family history but as the absence that helps form Brady’s possessive, self-appointed role in the household.