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Lydia Howland
Alice and John’s oldest child; Lydia and Tom’s sister. Anna is a successful lawyer, has recently married a man named Charlie, and is actively trying to conceive their first child. Anna struggles with infertility issues, leading her to choose in vitro fertilization, which initially fails. When Alice is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Anna gets genetic testing done and learns that she carries the same mutated gene and will inevitably develop Alzheimer’s one day, as well. Because of this, Anna chooses to have fertilized embryos tested for the same gene before being implanted, resulting in her pregnancy with twins Allison Anne and Charles Thomas. Anna and Alice are drawn closer together after Alice’s diagnosis, and Anna frequently spends the night at Alice and John’s home when John is away. When John is offered a new position in New York City, Anna insists that Alice be left with her, Charlie, and Tom in Cambridge so they can take care of her. When John does leave, Anna comes over with the twins and Lydia every day to take care of Alice.
Anna Howland Quotes in Still Alice
The Still Alice quotes below are all either spoken by Anna Howland or refer to Anna Howland. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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December 2004 Quotes
They talked about her as if she weren’t sitting in the wing chair, a few feet away. They talked about her, in front of her, as if she were deaf. They talked about her, in front of her, without including her, as if she had Alzheimer’s disease.
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Anna Howland Character Timeline in Still Alice
The timeline below shows where the character Anna Howland appears in Still Alice. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
October 2003
Alice and John walk together to a restaurant for Alice’s 50th birthday dinner. Their daughter, Anna, and her husband, Charlie, are already there. Both Anna and Charlie are successful lawyers at...
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Alice’s worry for Anna’s career if she gets pregnant is rooted in her own experience. She thinks back to...
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Alice, John, Anna, and Charlie all exchange pleasantries while they wait for Tom, to arrive. Tom, Alice’s son,...
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...not menopause-related, but potentially something much more serious. Terrified, Alice begins sobbing in the bathroom. Anna hears her, knocks on the door, and asks if she’s okay.
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December 2003
Anna, Charlie, Tom, and John are in the living room and Lydia is talking to Alice...
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...remember her words, but she can’t remember all of them. Lydia is still talking, and Anna calls in to ask Alice where the wine opener is. Alice tries to ignore the...
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February 2004
...and Alice tells her she hasn’t. Stephanie urges her to tell them soon, especially because Anna and Charlie are trying to conceive.
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March 2004
In her office, Alice reads an email from Anna rescheduling a dinner they planned to have together. Alice struggles to think of how to...
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April 2004
With all the kids arriving home, Alice notes that Anna is turning down mimosas and a Bloody Mary in favor of water. However, she tells...
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When Alice tells Tom, Anna, and Lydia about her Alzheimer’s, and that she had been formally diagnosed several months before,...
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Anna asks if they can get tested and Alice says that they can, but Anna is...
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Anna announces that she wants to get tested and Tom agrees that he wants to, as...
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Anna sends Alice an email telling her that the insemination has failed, and she isn’t pregnant....
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Although Tom tested negative, he looks “pale, shaken, fragile.” Anna’s news has dampened the relief he must have felt over his results because “they [are]...
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May 2004
...wants from the life she has and realizes what she really wants is to hold Anna’s baby, see Lydia act, see Tom fall in love, and have another sabbatical with John....
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...test her long-term memory. It contains questions about the month, her home and office addresses, Anna’s birthday, and how many kids she has. A daily alarm will remind her to take...
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July 2004
...will be home and then when Anne will be home. Confused, Lydia tells Alice that Anna is in Boston, but Alice says she’s asking about Anne. Lydia is forced to tell...
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August 2004
Tom walks into the house and apologizes for being late. With everyone gathered around, Anna announces that she is pregnant with twins. Everyone is thrilled even though Anna warns them...
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...starts an argument between Tom (who thinks Alice should not worry about remembering anything) and Anna (who thinks Alice should be trying harder to remember everything), while Lydia argues that they...
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...else that summer. There is an uncomfortable silence, but the actor answers her questions. Finally, Anna tells Alice that this actress is “Lydia, your daughter.”
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September 2004
...the questions, she leaves out key details, including part of her address and the year Anna was born.
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October 2004
...confidence in this knowledge.” On the other hand, when she looks over at Tom and Anna she can “automatically connect them” with her memories of them. She remembers Lydia’s childhood, but...
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...Alice they want to give her a birthday present: DVDs full of stories told by Anna, Tom, Lydia, and John about their memories of her and each other. There is even...
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November 2004
...front of the door. She can’t remember when or how it was made, but then Anna calls and tells her she’ll be over later to bring her dinner because John is...
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...she hears the door open. She goes out to see who it is and sees Anna “standing on the hole!” Confused, Alice bends down to feel the hole and realizes it’s...
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...on her BlackBerry, she can no longer provide her full address or the day of Anna’s birth, but remembers what month it is and that she has three kids.
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December 2004
...offered a new job at Sloan-Kettering in New York City. There is a silence before Anna asks him if he’s actually thinking of taking it and he says he is. Anna...
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January 2005
...doesn’t want to move to New York because she wants to be in Cambridge when Anna’s babies are born. Alice says that she feels “safe” in Cambridge and worries she’ll lose...
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March 2005
...the podium to give her presentation, Alice looks out into the crowd and notices John, Anna, Charlie, Tom, Mary, Cathy, Dan Sullivan, and Dr. Sullivan. She touches her butterfly necklace and...
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April 2005
...and she becomes excited when she sees Alice and John. Alice realizes the woman is Anna.
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Anna introduces the babies as Allison Anne and Charles Thomas. The young man hands one baby...
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May 2005
...calendar in a long time, so she’s unable to answer him. John asks her about Anna’s birthday, but she isn’t able to answer that either. Alice looks at a building across...
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