So B. It

Mama is Heidi’s mentally challenged mother. She seeks Bernie’s help with Heidi on the day a bus strikes and kills her own mother, Diane DeMuth. Mama tells Bernie that her name is So Be It, which Bernie changes slightly to So B. It. Heidi learns on her quest for the truth about Mama’s background that her name is Sophia, a name Mama cannot pronounce. Mama’s good friend Elliot at Hilltop Home calls Mama Soof, a word that becomes synonymous for love in Mama’s limited vocabulary.

Mama carries out only basic caretaking and cognitive tasks, but she enjoys making Heidi tea and going on walks and simple errands with her. Mama suffers from increasingly worsening headaches throughout the novel, eventually succumbing to the condition that causes them. After Mama’s death, Bernie sends Mama’s body for burial in Liberty, New York.

Bernadette, whom Heidi calls Bernie and Mama calls Dette, lives in the next-door apartment to the one in which Heidi and Mama live. She helps Mama and Heidi on the day Heidi’s grandmother Diane DeMuth died, and she continues to help them as Heidi grows up. She orders supplies and necessities, teaches Heidi academics and how to cross the road, and tries to keep Heidi and Mama happy and safe. Bernie is agoraphobic and cannot leave the apartments; her condition worsened after her aging father died before she began looking after Mama and Heidi.

Bernie tries to read people to best judge their goodness: “And remember, baby, listen to the eyes” (19). She is down-to-earth, kind, and humble, never needing to replace furniture or clothes that are “P.F” (perfectly fine). She calls herself “Peasant stock […] Low to the ground and built for business” (71) in terms of appearance and traits. She serves multiple roles in the novel including Mentor (she teaches Heidi to read and leads her “homeschool”), Shadow (Bernie rejects the idea of Heidi’s cross-country journey and uses guilt in an attempt to control Heidi), and Ally (Bernie later helps cheerlead Heidi over the phone and when she arrives in Liberty).

Diane DeMuth is Mama’s mother and Heidi’s grandmother whom Heidi never knew. Diane persuaded Thurman Hill to accept Sophia at Hilltop Home and later extorted the apartment in Reno and living expenses from Mr. Hill on the threat that she would reveal Sophia’s pregnancy to authorities (who would have found Sophia’s and Elliot’s relationship objectionable). Diane died in Reno shortly after Heidi was born. When Mama returned to their apartment after the bus accident that killed Diane, Bernie heard Heidi’s cries in the hall, opened her door to them, and soon found the connecting entry to the apartment next door where Diane, Mama, and Heidi lived.

Alice is the first woman upon whom Heidi relies on her cross-country bus trip to Liberty, New York. The transit rules state that Heidi is too young to travel alone, and Heidi does not want to risk being caught. She chooses Alice in the Reno bus station and accompanies her onto the bus by striking up a conversation just before boarding. The two are seatmates for the duration of the trip to Salt Lake City, where Alice is traveling for a family reunion. Alice chatters and preoccupies Heidi, and inadvertently makes Heidi feel bitter with talk about birthdays, names, and other family topics: “It’s a Wilinsky tradition […] The name Alice has been in the family for generations. There are scads of us” (110). Eventually Heidi feels she must fib to some of Alice’s questions because her actual family situation is too difficult to explain; when Heidi lies about Shirley Temple being friends with her grandmother, however, Alice realizes Heidi is not telling the truth and calls her out on it. Heidi’s guilt and discomfort over the way she and Alice part ways contribute to her doubt over continuing her quest.

Georgia is the second woman Heidi accompanies on her cross-country bus trip to Liberty, New York. Determined to feel better about her new friendship compared to her acquaintance with Alice Wilinsky, Heidi is honest with Georgia and shares details about Mama and Bernie. Georgia takes it all in stride. She is kind and open with Heidi; she tends to her when Heidi vomits in a trash can in Cheyenne and tells her about her goals to be a “shrink.” Georgia is an Ally to Heidi as she shares information about nonverbal communication with Heidi that might be helpful in Heidi’s quest. She also comforts her when she is ill, provides her with Doublemint gum like Bernie would have done, and soothes Heidi’s concern over the downed power lines. Georgia’ mother died when Georgia was young; Heidi apologizes for asking about Georgia’s mother, but Georgia does not feel any bitterness: “It’s not like it shows on a person, what they don’t have” (127). 

Thurman Hill, whom Heidi calls Mr. Hill, is the administrator of Hilltop Home. Thirteen years prior, he agreed to accept Sophia DeMuth as a resident, and she later bore the daughter of Mr. Hill’s son Elliot, also a resident of Hilltop Home. Mr. Hill agrees to furnish Sophia, her mother Diane Demuth, and infant Heidi with an apartment and resources in another city if Diane will keep quiet about Elliot’s and Sophia’s relationship, and the fact that they were able to conceive a child without Mr. Hill’s knowledge or intervention. Mr. Hill, Heidi’s grandfather, at first insists that Mama was never a resident of Hilltop Home and tries to lie to avoid sharing the truth with Heidi. In this Shadow archetypal role, he rudely tells her to leave and that she has no business being at Hilltop Home. The next day, however, he reconciles with his and Elliot’s past, and admits the truth to Heidi. 

Elliot is the challenged adult son of Thurman Hill. Heidi discovers that Elliot is her father. He lived at Hilltop Home when Diane Demuth persuaded Thurman Hill to accept her daughter Sophia on charity. Elliot and Sophia grew to be good friends and, unbeknownst to Thurman Hill or the staff of Hilltop Home, conceived a child together (Heidi). When Heidi arrives at Hilltop Home, she considers going through files in an office room she believes is empty but discovers Elliot sleeping in a chair. When he awakes, he thinks Heidi resembles Sophia, whom he still misses very much. He calls Heidi “Soof” because of the resemblance, and Heidi knows that she is on the close trail of the mystery of Mama’s background.