The Bear Came over the Mountain

Fiona, Grant’s wife of over 50 years, is in her 70s. Much of the narrative centers on her Alzheimer’s disease and her new life at Meadowlake. Fiona is described as a walking irony, where she does one thing and means another. She looks much like her mother yet is nothing like her. She’s not into politics, but in her youth, “she liked to play ‘The Four Insurgent Generals’ on the phonograph, and sometimes also she played the ‘Internationale’, very loud, if there was a guest she thought she could make nervous” (286). Memorizing political anthems to make the people visiting her wealthy parents uncomfortable exemplifies the kind of person she was when Grant met her.

Fiona does not take life seriously, and she finds humor in the uncomfortable, going to various lengths to pursue a joke. Her flippancy with life is also reflected in her dismissive attitude toward her own health, to the many times she tried to minimize her memory loss, and how she chooses to joke with the policeman who found her wandering in the middle of the street. When Meadowlake comes up, Fiona calls it Sillylake, continuing to be light and airy about her serious health condition.

In fiction, people suffering from mental illnesses are often portrayed as sad, dejected, and losing the “spark of life” (286), but Fiona does not represent this trope. Even as she’s losing her memory due to Alzheimer’s, she makes a new home at Meadowlake, finds love, and remains as vibrant as ever until that love is taken from her. It’s because of what Grant knows of her—that she plays harsh jokes—that he’s so uncertain about whether she’s truly forgotten him during this time, and it is only when she falls to sorrow that he realizes what she was feeling was real and is motivated to help her. Fiona’s behavior at the end of the story, where she claims “names elude me” when speaking of Aubrey (335), suggests that this level of indignance is what she could have displayed toward Grant if he had ever confessed to cheating. Fiona wants nothing to do with the situations that hurt her, and the story gives a small insight into that behavior at the end.

Aubrey is Fiona’s companion during her time at Meadowlake. He is in poor health after a workplace accident, which requires him to use a wheelchair much of the time. Aubrey does not speak much, uttering a few syllables to Fiona now and again, but he is otherwise written to be a silent observer. Aubrey uses his few words to call Fiona “my love,” and he brings out a softness in Fiona that Grant has never seen directed toward himself, as she calls Aubrey “dear heart” and “honey.” Aubrey and Fiona spend their days together playing bridge, walking through the conservatory, and watching sports.

Aubrey serves as a foil to Grant in both physical and romantic ways. Unlike Aubrey, Grant is able-bodied; he can still ski, drive, and speak with his full faculties. In contrast to Aubrey’s relative silence, Grant was a university professor of literature, speaking multiple languages. Grant notices and discovers these differences while following Aubrey and Fiona around during their time together.

Aubrey’s presence, and Fiona’s attachment to him, forces Grant to confront truths about himself and his relationship with his wife: whether he was a good husband and whether his cheating deserves punishment and the guilt he feels. Aubrey prompts Grant to reflect on his past in a way Grant had previously avoided, because he never had to ask himself if Fiona would truly be unfaithful.