“Doe is a skinny minnie with mouse-colored hair who
tries so hard to be no trouble to anybody and stay out of everyone’s way
and make no demands whatsoever on anyone, and if you ask her what
she’d like to eat for lunch, or what she wants to do after lunch, she only
whispers, ‘Whatever you have left over. Don’t fix anything special for me.
A piece of bread is more than good enough. Whatever you have extra of.
Water is fine. If you want to go someplace after lunch, I can just sit here
and look out the window. I’m happy. It’s fine with me. Make it easy on
yourself. I’m quite content to look at an old magazine and listen to the radio.
I don’t need anybody to entertain me. You go do whatever you like and
just pretend I’m not here.’ Her visits place a huge weight on our
household. The weight of meekness. Aunt Doe is sort of the
Billy the Kid of meekness, a professional meeker, she has
out-meeked the best of them, she can meek you to death.”

– Garrison Keillor,
   Lake Wobegon Summer 1956, p.29