The Lady Pharmacist is ’s mother. A secular, modern woman of science and a widow yet to remarry, both she and her son are considered outsiders in Van. Like her late husband, she believes in Turkey’s potential for sociopolitical “enlightenment,” hopeful that the country will grow gradually more progressive and modern, like the Western nations she sees as superior. Though doesn’t much care for her—nor she for him—he calls on her for help when falls severely ill as a child. The Lady Pharmacist disapproves of Haroun and his family’s reluctance to join the scientific age, but she helps Leila regardless, administering both medicine and kindness. She also brings Sinan along with her, inadvertently sparking a lifelong friendship between the two children.