Oliwia

Oliwia is Ollie’s grandmother, introduced as an elderly woman in a headscarf whose kindness helps make Shay feel at home among Ollie’s family. Her hospitality is practical as well as affectionate: she remembers Shay’s dietary needs, offers him food he can enjoy, and makes clear that he is welcome to return.

Identity and Introduction

Oliwia appears in the hallway of the ground-floor flat where Ollie brings Shay to meet his grandparents. She is accompanied by Feodor, an elderly man with a cane; both have dark eyes and kind smiles. Shay is struck by how plainly pleased they are to see Ollie, and the welcome soon extends to him. The smell of paprika from the Newcastle cafe recalls a familiar kind of food and makes the flat feel like home to Shay.

Oliwia’s accent resembles Ollie’s, though her delivery is rougher. In the kitchen, she serves cabbage and sausage broth. Shay enjoys it enough to think he could eat much more, but he is mindful that overeating would affect his blood sugar. Her hospitality therefore enters a scene where welcome and self-care have to coexist.

Food and Attentive Care

Oliwia brings Shay a slice of poppy-seed cake made without sugar, with lemon and honey instead. She cuts the portion small enough to suit his needs, and Shay recognizes that she has understood he cannot manage a heavily sweetened treat. The gesture makes her care concrete: she does not simply offer what she would serve any guest, but adapts what she brings to the person sitting at her table.

She also explains that the family does not eat many cakes, so the ones they do have must be good. Her remarks about Polish food connect cooking to homeland and belonging. She insists that, for a Polish person, food from home is what makes things right, recalling that she told Ollie this while he was at school and eating fast food. Food is both an expression of her identity and a means of welcoming Shay into the family’s domestic life.

Relationship with Ollie and Shay

Oliwia tells Shay that Ollie had described him as a good person some time earlier. The disclosure surprises Shay: he and Ollie have known each other for barely a month, and their relationship has been complicated from the start. Oliwia adds that Ollie does not call often, making his earlier mention of Shay notable without claiming more about what he said than she reveals. Her account gives Shay evidence that he had already mattered in Ollie’s conversations with his family.

When Ollie declines the coffee and cake she later brings, explaining that Shay has work the next day, Oliwia answers that she knows and that Shay likes her cake. She invites Ollie to bring him again. The offer turns a first meeting into the possibility of continuing contact: her welcome is not confined to a meal or a single visit, but leaves a place open for Shay in the family’s home.