"Poor Joanna"

11 November 2019: "She was full o' feeling, and her troubles hurt her more than she could bear. I see it all now as I couldn't when I was young.” --Mrs. Fosdick on "Poor Joanna" in The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett

I am working my way through this amazing little book with my ENGL 346 class and today find myself moved all over again by Jewett's careful and sensitive creation of characters like Joanna (who never actually appears in the text's "present"--she is just someone the other characters remember). I love what Mrs. Fosdick expresses here: the understanding and increased compassion that can come with growing older, especially for people who seem destined for great trials and sadness.