Hannah Coulter

Hannah Coulter narrates the story of her life, recounting how she came to marry Nathan Coulter and the life they built together on 150 acres of land near Port William. Hannah married Nathan after her first husband was killed in World War II. Nathan served in the Battle of Okinawa and survived, although he never discussed the details of what happened there. He only told stories about his childhood and his brother Tom, whom they lost in the war. He often told their children the story of when he carried his Grandpa, who was then in his eighties, home one day after he became ill. Nathan saw that as “the last day of his childhood” (16), the day he became a man. Nathan is gone now, and Hannah wonders how much longer she will live, looking forward to the day she leaves this world.

Hannah narrates the story of her childhood. She was the only child of Dalton and Callie Steadman, and they lived in a farmhouse with her paternal grandmother, Grandmam. Dalton was a tenant farmer, but Hannah can remember working from an early age.