Hannah Coulter

Hannah’s memories and admiration reveal Nathan’s character throughout the story despite his quiet nature. The Coulters are long-standing participants in “the membership” named by Nathan’s beloved uncle, Burley Coulter. After Virgil’s death, the Coulter men began helping Mr. Feltner on the farm—an act characteristic of the families in the membership—putting Nathan in Hannah’s path. After returning from the trauma of World War II and the Battle of Okinawa, Nathan carries invisible scars. As Hannah notes, “He was a rock to me, but now I knew that he had been shaken” (186). His war experience fuels his desire for peace and stability. Rather than allow war to harden him, Nathan turns his pain into purpose and commits himself to rebuilding, farming, and creating a life of meaning with Hannah. 

Nathan embodies Rural Life and Agrarian Values throughout the novel, finding dignity in working the land. He does not chase after modernity or success as defined by wealth or ambition. Instead, he invests in the soil, his home, and his relationships. Hannah says, “He loved the old free work-swapping with our kinfolks and friends, who needed no bossing but out of their regard and respect for one another did what they were supposed to do” (145). The transformation of their home and farm reflects his patience and craftsmanship—his love made visible through labor. Berry depicts Nathan’s love for Hannah as patient, respectful, and enduring. Together, they form a small unit within the greater community of Port William, where love and hard work form the foundation of their legacy.

Nathan’s catchphrase, “live on,” echoes throughout the novel, capturing not only his ethos but also one of the novel’s central truths. For Nathan, to “live on” is not simply about survival or enduring hardship but a statement of faith in the face of loss, change, and the unknown. Nathan uses the phrase in the context of the daily work of farming and in more serious moments, such as his terminal cancer diagnosis or his children’s decision to leave the farm. His philosophy of steadfastness, hard work, and faithful love is a call to accept both the beauty and the sorrow of life with quiet dignity. To Hannah, Nathan’s use of the phrase reveals the depth of his endurance and the steadiness of his love, inspiring her commitment to keep his legacy alive so he will “live on” in her memory.

Hannah’s grandmother’s care and wisdom form the early moral and emotional foundation of Hannah’s character as she created order and identity for her at a time of emotional upheaval. After the death of Hannah’s mother and the disruption of her childhood home, Hannah becomes Grandmam’s helper and friend, which gives her a sense of responsibility and usefulness—qualities that serve her throughout her life. Grandmam teaches through example, modeling a life of attending to work, family, and the land with calm discipline. In doing so, she imparts lessons that Hannah will later draw upon as a wife, mother, widow, and farmer. Hannah says:

[Grandmam] was the decider of my fate. She shaped my life, without of course knowing what my life would be. She taught me many things that I was going to need to know, without either of us knowing I would need to know them. She made the connections that made my life […] (24).

Grandmam’s teachings remain with Hannah throughout her life and represent the value of inherited wisdom that reveals its worth only over time. Grandmam gives Hannah the tools that will later build a family and community of her own, becoming part of the unbroken chain of wisdom and care that defines Port William. Hannah’s reflections on Grandmam draw a connection between love and work, between memory and physical action, comforted by the muscle memory and daily rituals passed from hand to hand: 

It is hard to say what it means to be at work and thinking of a person you loved and still, who did that same work before you and who taught you to do it. It is a comfort ever and always, like hearing the rhyme come when you are singing alone (120). 

Through Grandmam, Hannah links herself to the generations of women who came before her—women whose stories were not often told but whose lives formed the backbone of family and community.