Link’s former nanny whom his family fired after she became ill with what Link suspects is tuberculosis. Link tells Melba that Ms. Healy worked for his family all her life. When his father got married, Link’s grandmother “gave her” to him “as a kind of gift.” Despite her lifetime of service, Link’s family offers her no financial help, due to a belief that it was not good to “spoil” black people. Link delivers groceries to her home and Melba finds a black doctor who sees Nana Healy and informs the two teenagers that she does not have much longer to live. She dies on Link’s graduation day.