Polly Chalmers—Nettle Cobb

Polly Chalmers and Nettle Cobb’s friendship turns acts of ordinary care into a durable bond: Nettle tends Polly through a painful arthritis flare, while Polly sees beyond Nettle’s anxious public manner to the gentleness and loyalty she brings into their home. Their last meeting ends with an unguarded declaration of love; after Nettle’s death, Polly’s grief and her continuing memory of Nettle make that friendship one of the story’s most intimate losses.

Friendship and everyday care

When Nettle arrives carrying lasagna, she immediately notices Polly’s pale, haggard appearance and the way Polly is holding her hands out because letting them hang hurts. The sight displaces Nettle’s own fears. Polly does not have to explain the severity of the flare before Nettle responds: she guides Polly into the living room, insists that she sit, and goes to fetch the thermal gloves.

Polly says she has taken a pill and hopes the pain will ease, but Nettle does not leave the decision to Polly’s reassurance. She says the gloves sometimes help and stays beside her until she sits in an armchair. Polly has given up on the gloves, yet Nettle continues to treat them as worth trying. The care is practical rather than grand: she plugs them in, helps Polly put them on, and remains attentive while warmth reaches Polly’s hands. Nettle’s concern itself has already eased something for Polly, even before she believes the gloves will work.

The visit also includes food and the anticipation of future need. Nettle has made the lasagna because she expects Polly may not be able to cook that day or the next, and plans to put it in the refrigerator. Her attention is neither abstract sympathy nor a single emergency response; she thinks ahead to how Polly will manage after she leaves.

Mutual understanding and trust

The care between them runs in both directions. Polly tells Nettle that she is different when she visits, and means it as praise: the nervous woman others see in town gives way to someone more assured and openly devoted in Polly’s company. Nettle is surprised by the observation. Polly’s home is a place where Nettle’s care is welcomed and recognized, rather than treated as a reason for suspicion or ridicule.

Nettle also feels able to speak frankly. She tells Polly that something must be done about her hands and that matters cannot continue as they are. Polly acknowledges the concern, even while struggling against the depression that accompanies the pain. Their closeness allows Nettle to press the issue without turning the conversation into a contest of authority; Polly can receive the concern as affection.

When Nettle is ready to leave, Polly’s hands still hurt, but the pain is manageable and she can move her fingers again. Polly reaches out and clumsily takes one of Nettle’s hands, telling her how glad she is that she came. Nettle answers with an expansive smile and says she loves Polly; Polly returns the declaration. The exchange gives voice to a bond already established through repeated attention and trust.

Shared history and the final visit

Their friendship is also part of Polly’s relationship with the town’s ongoing conflicts. Polly had given Nettle her dog, Raider, and later felt partly responsible for the tension that developed between Nettle and Wilma Jerzyck. When Wilma complained about the dog, Polly asked Alan Pangborn to handle the complaint; Nettle agreed to keep Raider indoors as much as possible. Alan later recounts that Nettle continued to fear Wilma and had crossed into retaliation by muddying the Jerzycks’ sheets. Polly’s concern for Nettle is therefore entangled with her awareness that a gift intended as kindness had become part of a worsening neighborhood dispute.

On the final visit, Nettle tells Polly that Raider is on guard and says she thinks Wilma will leave her alone because she has not seen or heard from her. Polly does not then understand the full significance of the remark. After Nettle dies, Polly recounts the visit to Alan: Nettle had noticed the crisis in her hands, brought out the thermal gloves, made coffee, and spoken as though the danger from Wilma had passed. The memory becomes important to Alan’s questions about the deaths, while for Polly it remains a vivid account of Nettle’s last kindness to her.

Loss and continuing remembrance

Nettle’s departure from Polly’s house is their last meeting. Polly learns of the loss in the aftermath of Nettle’s death and, while grieving, thinks about the practical responsibilities that remain: Nettle has a few relatives in Yarmouth, and Polly expects to call them and make funeral arrangements. She asks Alan whether she can enter Nettle’s house to find an address book. Her care persists beyond the friendship’s final conversation, now taking the form of arranging what Nettle can no longer arrange herself.

Polly pays for a plain gray casket and declines Alan’s offer to share the expense. At the service in Homeland Cemetery, she cries as the minister asks the mourners to keep their memories of Nettle fresh. She tells Alan she has to cry for her friend and asks why it happened. Grief here is not an incidental response: Polly’s intimate knowledge of Nettle gives the loss its personal weight, and the funeral makes visible how few people have gathered around her.

Later, Polly remembers Nettle while working at the sewing shop. She can flex her fingers more freely than she had been able to for months, and wishes Nettle were there to share the improvement. Rosalie Drake gently reminds her that Nettle would not begrudge her feeling better; Polly agrees. The moment preserves both sides of their relationship: Nettle’s final care helped Polly through an acute crisis, and Polly continues to imagine her friend as someone who would welcome her recovery. The friendship survives as memory, not as a claim that grief has ended.