Mrs. Carmichael
is the deceased mother of Charlotte, Midge and Bill Carmichael, wife of Dr.
Charles Carmichael and sister-in-law of Margot Lyle and Lucy Carmichael. She is only
referred to in the stories as having passed away when Bill, her youngest child,
was very young. Very little information is provided about her. She studied at
St. Ronan’s and was in St. George’s House. She probably studied with Lucy and
Margot and it is likely that they introduced her to her future husband during
visits to their home during the school holidays. All the children appear to
have come to terms with her passing and the hole that she left in their lives
is partially filled by Aunt Lucy. It is likely that the author decided that the
Carmichael children would have no mother to enable their household to be run by
an “eccentric” Aunt Lucy, as Lucy’s behavior in Susan Pulls the Strings would
be more acceptable coming from an aunt than a mother. However, the concept of
an eccentric Aunt Lucy soon fell away and she became a more “sensible” maternal
figure, and in the subsequent books the absence of the children’s birth mother was always quickly
explained away in the opening pages. The cause of Mrs.
Carmichael’s death is not given, nor is her first name, although it was
possibly Margaret.
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