Question

"I finally found the room and saw my grandmother in bed. My grandmother looks like Ethel
Barrymore. I never knew who Ethel Barrymore was until I saw a terrific movie, None But The
Lonely Heart, on TV, starring Ethel Barrymore and Cary Grant. Both my grandmother and Ethel
Barrymore have these great craggy faces like the side of a mountain and wonderful voices like
syrup being poured. Slowly. She was propped up in bed, pillows puffed behind her. Her hair had
been combed out and fell upon her shoulders. For some reason, this flowing hair gave her an
almost girlish appearance, despite its whiteness.
She saw me and smiled. Her eyes lit up and her eyebrows arched and she reached out her hands
to me in greeting. "Mike, Mike," she said. And I breathed a sigh of relief. This was one of her
good days. My mother warned me that she might not know who I was at first.
I took her hands in mine. They were fragile. I could actually feel her bones, and it seemed as if
they would break if I pressed too hard. Her skin was smooth, almost slippery, as if the years had
worn away all the roughness, the way the wind wears away the surfaces of stones.
"Mike, Mike, I didn't think you'd come," she said, so happy, and she was still Ethel Barrymore,
that voices like a caress. "I've been waiting all this time." Before I could reply, she looked away,
out the window. "See the birds? I've been watching them at the feeder. I love to see them come.
Even the blue jays. The blue jays are like hawks -- they take the food that the small birds should
have. But the small birds, the chickadees, watch the blue jays and at least learn where the feeder
is."
She lapsed into silence, and I looked out the window. There was no feeder. No birds.
There was only the parking lot and the sun glinting on car windshields.
She turned to me again, eyes bright. Radiant, really. Or was it a medicine brightness?
"Ah, Mike. You look so grand, so grand. Is that a new coat?"
"Not really," I said. I'd been wearing my uncle Jerry's old army-fatigue jacket for months,
practically living in it, my mother said. But she insisted that I wear my raincoat for the visit. It
was about a year old but looked new because I didn't wear it much. Nobody was wearing
raincoats lately.
"You always loved clothes, didn't you, Mike?" she said.
I was beginning to feel uneasy, because she regarded me with such intensity. Those bright eyes. I
wondered -- are old people in place like this so lonesome, so abandoned that they go wild when
someone visits? Or was she so happy because she was suddenly lucid and everything was sharp
and clear? My mother had described those moments when my grandmother suddenly emerged
from the fog that so often obscured her mind. I didn't know the answers, but it felt kind of
spooky, getting such an emotional welcome from her.
3


Check-In (page 3): Read paragraphs of “The Moustache.” Use what you have learned about providing an objective summary to complete the activities.

Main Points Paragraphs 10-13
Explain Importance












































"I remember the time you bought the new coat -- the Chesterfield," she said, looking away again,
as if watching the birds that weren't there. "That lovely coat with the velvet collar. Black, it was.
Stylish. Remember that, Mike? It was hard times, but you could never resist the glitter.""

Answer 1

I only have the single paragraph that begins “I remember the time you bought the new coat — the Chesterfield,” in your excerpt. If you can paste paragraphs 11–13 I’ll make a precise, paragraph-by-paragraph objective summary. Meanwhile, here’s a ready-to-use objective-summary answer you can adapt for paragraphs 10–13 based on the passage around that line and the scene just before it.

Main points (paras 10–13)
- The grandmother remembers and comments on a time when Mike bought a stylish Chesterfield coat (black with a velvet collar), noting it was during hard times but he couldn’t resist “the glitter.”
- Her memory is affectionate and specific, showing a sudden moment of clear recall and engagement with Mike.
- Mike reacts with a mix of emotion and unease; he notices discrepancies between her memories and the present (earlier she described birds that aren’t there) and wonders whether her lucidity is genuine or medicine-induced.

Explain importance
- Character development: the grandmother’s anecdote and tone reveal her personality (fond, observant, fond of teasing) and deepen the emotional connection between her and Mike.
- Theme and contrast: the clear, detailed memory contrasts with her frequent confusion elsewhere in the scene, highlighting the story’s themes of memory loss, aging, and fragile moments of lucidity.
- Mood and tension: Mike’s uneasy reaction creates emotional tension and foreshadows conflict about perception and identity later in the story; the anecdote also grounds the scene in a specific, intimate memory that makes the grandmother’s condition feel more poignant.

If you want this turned into a single short paragraph or rewritten to match your teacher’s rubric, tell me the exact rubric or paste paragraphs 11–13 and I’ll refine it.