Midge Steering Percy

Midge Steering Percy, once part of the family that owned the grand Steering house, appears late in the narrative as an elderly, increasingly forgetful woman at Stewart Percy’s funeral. Her encounter with Garp brings the Percy family’s diminished present into uneasy contact with its imposing past, and the memory of her former home helps prompt Garp to want to buy it when he learns it is for sale.

Identity and Family Background

Midge is identified in the account of the Steering family house as Midge Steering Percy, and at the funeral she sits among the Percys. The house had been returned to the Steering School some years earlier as a gift from Midge and her husband, Fat Stew; a ceremony had been arranged for the transfer. Its later fate contrasts sharply with that earlier act of generosity: a new director of Physical Facilities tells Garp confidentially that the school intends to sell the building, dismissing it as an albatross and a lemon.

Midge’s association with the house survives in Garp’s memory even as its institutional ownership and practical future change. He had understood that she and Fat Stew had given it back to the school, and he objects to the idea that the school should now dispose of it without giving Helen comparable time to move Ernie’s belongings out of the school house. The exchange makes Midge’s gift part of a broader question of who is treated with consideration when a home is transferred or cleared.

At Stewart Percy’s Funeral

At Stewart Percy’s funeral, Garp is led to a pew near the front, but the seat he expects to occupy is already taken by an old man stretched across it. He is waved instead into the Percy pew, beside Midge. For a moment, looking at the sleeper, Garp wonders whether he is seeing another body waiting its turn—a grim misreading that sets the scene’s disquieting tone.

Midge identifies the sleeping man as Uncle Harris Stanfull. The man on her other side then corrects the family identification, calling him Uncle Horace Salter. Garp recognizes the speaker as Stewie Two, the eldest Percy child and the family’s sole surviving son, a red-faced, corpulent man associated with aluminum in Pittsburgh. Stewie Two has not seen Garp since Garp was five and shows no sign of recognizing him. Midge, too, seems no longer to recognize the people around her.

The funeral’s practical arrangements underscore how small the gathering is. Garp sees that the pallbearing will fall to Stewie Two, the hearse driver, and himself, and doubts that the three of them can manage it. Looking at Stewart Percy’s closed, gray, ship-shaped casket, Garp thinks how awful it is to be so unloved. Midge’s presence in the family pew does not resolve that impression; instead, her distance from those around her makes the family’s decline visible within the funeral itself.

Age, Memory, and the Encounter with Garp

The narration describes Midge as wizened and white, with brown blotches on her face compared to unshelled peanuts. Her head has a jitter that makes her bob in the pew like a chicken deciding what to peck. These physical details are presented alongside her failure to recognize familiar people, making her age and confusion part of the scene’s immediate texture rather than a detached account of family history.

Midge apologizes to Garp and says that she cannot recall his name. Her gloved hand rests lightly on his arm as she speaks, a courteous, gentle gesture that persists even as recognition fails. Garp tries to answer, but stumbles among possible names and produces “Smoans,” surprising both himself and Midge. Stewie Two does not appear to notice the exchange. Midge takes the accidental name seriously enough to repeat it as a question, and later nudges Garp with the same “Mr. Smoans?” Her repeated address turns a moment of confusion into a small, recurring point of contact between them.

The House and Garp’s Response

After learning that the Steering family house is to be sold, Garp thinks of it as the vast, grand house he remembers and realizes that he wants to buy it. The decision is presented as a response to the remembered building, not as a completed purchase: the evidence establishes his desire, while leaving its outcome unstated. The house thus links Midge’s earlier gift to the school with Garp’s present impulse to reclaim or preserve something that remains vivid in his memory.

Midge’s late appearance gathers several kinds of loss into a single funeral scene: Stewart Percy’s death, the apparent weakening of family recognition and connection, and the approaching sale of the house associated with Midge’s past. Yet she is not reduced to that decline. Her apology, light touch, and persistent attempt to place a name on Garp give the encounter its modest warmth. The house’s remembered grandeur and Midge’s fragile courtesy stand against the language of disposal, leaving Garp’s wish to buy it as the scene’s consequential response to what the family and the school are letting go.