"Florence sees herself as a nurse of a sort. All her short life, she has always been moved by loneliness and suffering in this world as witness only in this inner Chicago city neighborhood of hers where she grew up. She realized how lonely were the Billys, Patrick's and Dougies of this world whom she used to greet on her way back to and from school. They were sitting on their front porch or, on their doorsteps with their mangy pets, when she left to catch the school bus, and they were still there when she returned home. That was not to mention the hobos in the park and many alley ways, and the also the destitute women around as well who were as lonely and vulnerable. "