Miss Amelia Timeline and Summary

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• Miss Amelia is raised by a father (and no mother) in a small town.
• When she is 19, her father passes and she inherits his properties and businesses.
• A few months after her father dies, Marvin Macy falls in love with her.
• She is twenty-one when she accepts his marriage proposal.
• During the ceremony, Miss Amelia seems uncomfortable, and leaves the church with her groom following behind.
• In the next ten days, Miss Amelia treats Marvin Macy as if he's a stranger, eventually physically attacking him when he tries to touch her, which results in him leaving town.
• Alone again, Miss Amelia continues her solitary life, running the general store, minding her whiskey still, and attending to her businesses and properties while providing medical care for the townspeople and suing anyone who crosses her. Many years pass.
• One evening Miss Amelia stands on her front porch with a few of her customers, and a small hunchbacked man approaches her, saying he's kin.
• Counter to her usual behavior, Miss Amelia offers him liquor, food, and lodgings, bringing him into her upstairs apartments by the end of the night.
• Miss Amelia fixes up the hunchbacked Cousin Lymon, who emerges from the building looking hearty and well (if oddly) dressed.
• Miss Amelia begins an informal café for the town, where she sells dinner and her whiskey. It becomes a successful town meeting place, brightened by the high jinks of Cousin Lymon.
• Miss Amelia seems to fall in love with Cousin Lymon, taking care of him and making sure he has everything he needs and wants.
• Miss Amelia lives happily (or happily enough for her) with Cousin Lymon for next four years.
• When Marvin Macy arrives in town, Miss Amelia loses the loyalty of Cousin Lymon, who begins to follow her estranged husband everywhere.
• Miss Amelia does everything she can to coax back Cousin Lymon, and get rid of Marvin.
• When Cousin Lymon invites Marvin Macy to live in Miss Amelia's apartments, she begins to prepare for a fight.
• On Groundhog Day, Miss Amelia eats raw roast and naps, as the café floor is cleared of tables in preparation.
• People from all over come to watch the fight between Miss Amelia and Marvin Macy.
• Miss Amelia does well in the fight, pinning Marvin Macy, until Cousin Lymon attacks her and she is defeated.
• Miss Amelia drags herself to her open-doored office and slumps on the desk, until she can find the energy to get herself to bed.
• As she sleeps, Marvin Macy and Cousin Lymon steal her valuables and destroy everything else she has, then leave town before dawn.
• When she wakes, Miss Amelia realizes what has happened, and hires a carpenter to board up all of her building's windows.
• For three years, Miss Amelia sits out on her porch, waiting for Lymon to return.
• Soon Miss Amelia no longer runs the store or the café. She never leaves her home.
• She continues to live on the upper floor of her building.