Newton Chalmers

Newton Chalmers is Polly Chalmers’s father, a forceful presence in the family conflict that drove her away from home and a dying parent whose illness eventually called her back. Their relationship is marked by a gulf between his judgment of her choices and her desire to make those choices herself; even their brief reunion near the end of his life cannot repair it.

Identity and Family Conflict

When Polly became pregnant by Paul “Duke” Sheehan, her parents wanted her to marry him. She refused, though she knew he did not intend to marry her. Newton reduced the disagreement to a judgment about her sexual and marital choices, asking whether the young man had been good enough for sex but not marriage. The remark cut through the possibility of reconciliation between father and daughter: instead of engaging with Polly’s reasons, it framed her decision as a matter of respectability.

Polly tried to leave the house, but her mother, Lorraine, stopped her and proposed sending her to Aunt Sarah in Minnesota until the baby was born, after which the child could be given up for adoption. Polly accused her parents of acting to protect a possible inheritance from Aunt Evvie rather than caring for her. Lorraine slapped her, and Polly ran away in July 1970. The departure followed a family confrontation, not a settled plan: in Denver, she worked until the birth and then chose to keep her son, Kelton, rather than place him for adoption.

The Reunion and Its Limits

Years later, Polly agreed to meet her parents for dinner at the Mark Hopkins. Her father had booked a room for one night; Polly wanted time to talk before making any final decision about her future, and the reunion also continued the tentative testing of their relationship that had taken place through letters. But the first night was the only one they shared. It was the last time she saw Newton healthy, and much of the evening passed in anger.

The old disputes, easier to avoid in correspondence, returned before dinner. Newton said that he and Lorraine believed Polly had learned her lesson and that the family should put the past behind them. Lorraine’s familiar, controlled manner and the renewed questioning about the baby deepened the dispute. The scene shows how little the passage of time had altered the terms of their relationship: even an effort to reconnect could become another judgment of Polly’s past and choices.

Illness, Death, and Polly’s Return

Near the end of 1975, Lorraine sent Polly a telegram saying that Newton had cancer, was dying, and asking her to come home. Polly reached him at a hospital in Bridgton while he was still alive, but he was drifting in and out of consciousness. He died three days later. The father who had once insisted on his view of what Polly should do could no longer answer her or take part in the difficult conversation she had hoped to have.

Polly had nearly intended to return to California immediately after his death, but four days after Newton’s burial Lorraine suffered a crippling heart attack. Polly stayed and cared for her mother for three and a half months. Lorraine later recovered enough to get out of bed and talk about selling the house and moving to California with Polly, but a second heart attack proved fatal. Newton’s body had remained in the Homeland Cemetery crypt through the winter; in March 1976, his burial took place one day before Lorraine died. At the funeral, Aunt Evvie told Polly that both her parents were in the ground. The compressed timing joined the two losses in a single return home, leaving Polly grieving and without either parent.

Narrative Role

Newton’s significance is chiefly relational: his conflict with Polly helps explain why she left Maine, while his illness and death draw her back years later. The structure of their story turns on a missed opportunity. Polly returns hoping to test whether a closer relationship is possible, but their one reunion revives their old arguments; when she comes home again, it is because Newton is dying, and he is gone before reconciliation can occur. His death is therefore not a resolution of their conflict but the event that makes its unfinished nature permanent.