Visiting Teaching Call on Gwen Trenerry

Greta Smith and Evelyn Baker's first visiting teaching call of the morning was on Gwen Trenerry, who lived alone in a worn brick unit in Smithfield. Gwen had been watching for them from behind the lace curtain and called them in before they had finished knocking. Her front steps were rotting and the screen door barely worked, but neither visitor raised it. Gwen would not let anyone near the place with a tool belt, and both women knew how carefully she guarded her independence.

Gwen hosted as she always did. She served scotch fingers from a tin on a cracked wedding-china plate and handed out mugs of tea already milked and sugared to her own taste. She waved off compliments with jokes about her winter knees and fiddled with a whistling hearing aid. She kept the talk on safe ground: the latest Ensign, her wandering reading glasses, the closure of the local butcher, a possum under the shed, someone's grandson accepted into veterinary school. When Evelyn asked whether the Relief Society sisters were keeping in touch, Gwen joked that she would soon be buried under knitted shawls.

What Gwen did not talk about was her daughter. The mantelpiece held only formal studio portraits of grandchildren, and the subject was never raised directly. A glance from Evelyn told Greta to leave it alone, and she did. Greta's instinct was to fix things: the steps, the damp, the likely mould in the bathroom. She held it back, reminding herself that the visit was for company, not repairs. She did glance once at her watch. Gwen saw it and carried on as if she had not, used to taking what time her visitors could give without asking for more.

Evelyn brought the visit to a close. Greta offered to come back later with groceries, and Gwen refused, as she always did. Then she reached down beside her chair, with visible effort, and pressed a homegrown lemon into Greta's hand, telling her she would make something lovely with it, as she always did. The words caught Greta off guard. It was a rare moment of being seen, and she thanked Gwen with a squeeze of the hand.

Outside, Evelyn observed that Gwen was colder than she let on. Greta agreed, and said she was too proud to admit it and too independent to let anyone do much about it. They walked back to the car with the lemon tucked carefully into Greta's handbag.