In a way she resembles one of those sets of nesting dolls. The Russian-Ukrainian doll sets called Matryoshka dolls. Their graduated sizes nestling within one another; the largest hosting all the others within its capacious interior. They're bright and colourful, cheerful things created with painterly skill and satisfying a most attractive ethnic tradition.

Her ethnicity, if it could be called that, is purely Anglo-Saxon. And her girth has it all over the nesting dolls. She does look, in fact, as though she has been puffed out to accommodate a series of other, gradually less fulsomely filled-out women within her. But what you see is what there is, one only, there are no others nestled within her.

She is enormous. Certainly not tall, but as broad as she is height-wise.

I remarked to her a few days ago that it suits her to wear her hair pulled back in a ponytail as she presented that day, seated on her porch, enjoying the fresh springtime air, ensconced in a sturdy wicker (!) armchair, well cushioned, seat and back, but beginning to show a little wear since it was first purchased.

Her face is very pretty. She has even, almost delicate facial features. She can be very animated when discussing matters of interest, and she has a very pleasant laugh. She's a thoroughly nice person. Moreover, a person that can be relied upon to offer support if some is needed, of an emotional, even a material quality. Our next-door neighbour depends on her as a confidante, one who lives handily directly across the street.

On that occasion, a few days back, she smiled her sweet smile at me, and remarked: "you didn't notice". I looked quizzically at her and she elaborated. "I lost 50 pounds", struggling to rise to demonstrate how her sacklike dress now had some room in it, it no longer clung so tightly to her completely rotund figure. No, I certainly hadn't noticed. And now it was brought to my attention I thought I detected that her face was no longer quite so puffed and round, perhaps it was that that brought my attention to her neat, pretty face. But her body? Not that I was wont to scrutinize it closely at any given time, but I could hardly see the difference. 50 pounds.

Her doctor, she said, threatened to give up on her if she failed finally to do something for herself. She's on a low-carbohydrate diet, now. Good for her. It's restraint that is required. And for the first time she mentioned to me that she has a medical condition, something to do with the lymphatic system that contributes to her enormous weight.