Theophilia Flowers

TheophiliaSophia Alpert: Well, possible or not, we saw the boardinghouse, Theophilia. (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 32) Flowers (formerly known as TheoMrs Flowers: You needn't call me Mrs Flowers if you don't want to. I have returned to the time when I was Theophilia – when my friends called me Theo. (The Return: Midnight - Chapter 36); b. before 1885) was a psychic. She inherited her parents' home after her father's death during her youth and her mother's death in 1901, taking in boarders in order to afford the upkeep. Unable to become a doctor, she became a nurse, and also utilised her powers as a medium on vaudeville.
==Biography==
===Early life===
Theophilia, nicknamed Theo, was born at some point before 1885. As a child, her family home was built, just outside of Fell's Church, Virginia.Mrs Flowers: Back when I was a child and the boarding-house was built – it was just a home, then, and I was very happy. As a young woman, I was very happy. And now that I have lived long enough to be an old woman – well, besides you children, I still have friends like Sophia Alpert and Orime Saitou. (The Return: Midnight - Chapter 36) Her mother was a psychic, and she too had the Power. The family hosted Christmas parties at the house every December, to which they invited all of their friends.Mrs Flowers: It's just the kind Mama and I used to have. When Papa was still alive and we'd invite all our friends over. (Elena's Christmas) Theophilia later gained a younger brother, at some point before her father's death in the 1890s at the latest. Their tradition of Christmas parties ended with his death.
Theophilia knew her grandmother before her death, remembering her as a "crotchety old recluse".Mrs Flowers: I just remember her as a crotchety old recluse, who didn't suffer fools gladly and thought just about everyone was a fool. I suppose I was going down the same path until you children came and made me sit up and take notice. Thank you. (The Return: Midnight - Chapter 4) Her mother advised her to take in boarders should she decide to keep the house after her death, but to be sure not to take in foreigners.Mrs Flowers: Of course, I had to get over my prejudices. Dear Mama always said that if I kept the place, I might have to take in boarders, and to be sure not to take in foreigners. And then of course, the young man is a vampire as well... (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 23)
===Career and marriage===
Theophilia utilised her powers by becoming a medium on vaudeville, although she found achieving a trance in front of an audience to be difficult. As women were not encouraged to become doctors at the time, she became a nurse, before becoming a landlady after inheriting her house in 1901 after her mother's death. Her mother continued to linger as a ghost, regularly communicating with her, as did her grandmother on occasion. She used to make flowerpots for outside of the boardinghouse using a potter's wheel and kiln, until children smashed them.Mrs Flowers: At least we've got a potter's wheel – somewhere. And a kiln in the back, although it's all grown over with Devil's Shoestring. I used to make flowerpots for outside the boarding-house, but children came and smashed them. I think I could make an urn like the ones you saw if you can draw one for me. (The Return: Midnight - Chapter 14) 
Theophilia married one Mr Flowers in 1910, when neither of them were particularly young. He fought in the First World War, being blown to pieces by a shell in 1918. Though she had previously been happy, she resented having to take in boarders for financial security. She became withdrawn and bitter like her grandmother, and treated by the people of Fell's Church as a crazy person.Mrs Flowers: The people here are like people everywhere. Treat them as you'd like to be treated, and things will be fine. It was only when I'd let myself become a bitter, lonely old woman, always resentful of the fact that I had had to turn my home into a boarding-house just to make ends meet, that people began to treat me – well, at best as a loony old hag. (The Return: Midnight - Chapter 36) However, she formed friendships with Sophia Alpert and Orime Saitou.
In 1982, Inari Saitou moved in with Orime. Mrs Flowers noticed how Orime became quieter and diffident, and that her daughter, Isobel, became more aloof. However, she did not connect the changes with Inari's arrival, believing that she was Orime's mother.Mrs Flowers: Ten years ago, I didn't know what made Orime Saitou suddenly so diffident and quiet. Now I realise that it began just around the time her ‘mother’ moved in with her. I was quite fond of young Isobel, but she suddenly became – aloof – in an unchildlike way. Now I understand. (The Return: Midnight - Chapter 36)
===Taking in Stefan===
In September, 1991, Mrs Flowers took in Stefan Salvatore at the boardinghouse, despite what her mother had told her about foreigners, and the fact that she knew that he was a vampire. She enjoyed remarking on the dangers of the Old Wood after he returned from hunting animals there.Mrs Flowers: We need to be safe here. You never know what might be out there in those woods, do you? (The Awakening - Chapter 5) 
Mrs Flowers kept an eye on Stefan's activities, including his meeting with Elena Gilbert one night. She met her the following day, telling her how he must still be in his room unless he had "flown off the roof", referencing how he had used that method in order to hunt. While Elena went to look for him, Meredith Sulez and Bonnie McCullough stayed with Mrs Flowers. She banged a shoe against the banister, bringing Stefan downstairs and giving Elena time to discover the ribbon that he had kept.The Awakening - Chapter 9
When Elena, Meredith, Bonnie and Matt Honeycutt arrived at the boardinghouse with an injured Stefan, Mrs Flowers watched them from a window, but did not respond to Elena's calls for help. However, she had left the door unlocked for them.The Struggle - Chapter 4
While Stefan and Matt were on a hunt for vervain, Elena attempted to get in contact with him (unaware of his search) by calling the boardinghouse. However, Mrs Flowers repeatedly picked up the phone and disconnected it.The Struggle - Chapter 8
Elena later noticed that Mrs Flowers never seemed to be around at the boardinghouse whenever she arrived.The Struggle - Chapter 13 She attended the Founders' Day celebration on November 30.The Struggle - Chapter 15
As part of the investigation into the Other Power in Fell's Church, Bonnie and Meredith visited the boardinghouse one day, but she did not answer the door.The Fury - Chapter 8 Stefan later followed her for a whole afternoon and evening, during which she did three loads of washing in her basement and filled the many bird-feeders in her garden before returning to the basement to wipe off jars of preserves. He observed her talking to herself, though she was presumably conversing with the ghosts of her mother and grandmother.The Fury - Chapter 9
Stefan left the boardinghouse after Elena's death. Mrs Flowers left the room untouched, perhaps foreseeing his return.Dark Reunion - Chapter 5
===Stefan's return===
The following summer, Mrs Flowers inexplicably knew that Stefan, Matt, Bonnie, Meredith and Damon Salvatore were in the old barn on her property. She took them a tray with grape juice made from her own grapes, offering some to the teenagers and telling the Salvatores that they were welcome to some blackberry wine in the cellar, recognising their age. She assured them that she would say nothing of Stefan's return, given his fugitive status, and sighed about a "pretty girl" that they theorised was either Elena or Sue Carson. She then left. Stefan also wondered whether or not she had known about Elena's stay in the barn as a vampire.
Mrs Flowers was pruning roses in her garden when Stefan and his friends arrived, asking about a white ash. She pointed out where one was in the garden. She seemed unconcerned by how they removed a branch of the tree, simply telling Stefan that a package had been left for him on the porch and that she had taken to his room. The package contained a letter from Klaus and Caroline Forbes's scarf.Dark Reunion - Chapter 13 Mrs Flowers was gone by the time they had gone downstairs.Dark Reunion - Chapter 14
After Elena's resurrection, she moved in with Stefan at the boardinghouse. Bonnie remarked on the food that Mrs Flowers had been feeding them, if she had been at all.The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 3 When she, Meredith, Matt and Caroline arrived at the boardinghouse to see them, they could not find Mrs Flowers, as usual.The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 4
After Bonnie was attacked by a malach, Stefan told Damon to take her to the boardinghouse and wake Mrs Flowers for help.The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 11 However, Damon did not believe that she had any arcane knowledge, and instead fed her his blood to heal her.The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 12 He later asked Mrs Flowers where he could leave a message for Stefan, although she did not know who he was. She told Stefan about the message he had left after he returned from a picnic.The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 16
After Elena adapted to her new life and was able to speak and think properly, she decided to practise by asking Mrs Flowers where Stefan was by calling out the window. Mrs Flowers, who was putting up wet clothes to dry, told her, after she came outside, that Stefan had left by dawn, when she had gotten up and seen that his car was gone.The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 16 Elena, Bonnie and Meredith decided to have a sleepover using Mrs Flowers' spare sheets, which she had conveniently washed and put out to dry that morning. Elena figured that she must have somehow known that they would need them.The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 17
After Elena, Bonnie and Meredith saw the malach wound that Matt had, Elena took him to Mrs Flowers. After Bonnie saw that she gave him herbal tea, Mrs Flowers confirmed her suspicions and told them that she was a witch. She explained that her unfriendliness had been because of her growing more solitary and reclusive, but that she regretted not having gotten up earlier and been able to stop Stefan from leaving for Shi no Shi. She saw to Matt's wound, although she had only ever heard of the word malach.The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 18
After finishing gardening, Mrs Flowers happened to see something sticking out from behind a begonia bush, and found a duffel bag containing Stefan's clothes. She proceeded to call and tell Meredith.The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 22
===Defending Fell's Church===
Bonnie and Meredith later ran to the boardinghouse, where Mrs Flowers stood waiting with an old-fashioned kerosene lamp. She fed them and saw to their wounds. She suggested that the three of them go into the Old Wood to look for Elena and Matt, but Meredith told her that she should not, leading her to reveal her age, that she knew Stefan was a vampire, and that she often spoke to her mother's ghost. She also told them to dress warm, just as she had, presumably having been told by her mother beforehand.The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 24 She took one of Stefan's socks to see if she could get any impressions from it as she went. At the door, they found Rich Mossberg looking for Matt, who had been accused of raping Caroline Forbes. However, Mrs Flowers barred his way to prevent him entering the boardinghouse. After he left, she remarked that the poultice she had used on Matt's wounds would have left them looking like a girl's nail-marks.The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 25
The three located Matt in the Old Wood, as well as Dr Alpert, Jim Bryce and Inari Saitou. After they claimed to have seen the boardinghouse from a distance that would make it an impossibility, they looked towards the house and saw that Stefan's light was still on, though Meredith had turned it off. They came to the conclusion that they were being supernaturally messed with.The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 32 They managed to find Elena, and met Shinichi and Misao, whom Elena chased off.The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 38
Before Elena, Matt and Damon left to look for Stefan, Elena asked Mrs Flowers for bath salts that would help her relax.The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 8 When Bonnie and Meredith left for the Dark Dimension, they left Mrs Flowers and Matt to look after Fell's Church, with Meredith remarking that they made a "solid team" and that Mrs Flowers had been practising witchcraft constantly.The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 11 Due to Matt being wanted by the police, Mrs Flowers allowed him to live at the boardinghouse.The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 21
As malach spread throughout the children of the town, Mrs Flowers believed that they would have started having pep-rally-esque meetings. She suggested that Matt ask Inari Saitou for Shinto wards in case of a barricade, which her tea-leaves warned her about. She also asked that he alert Dr Alpert to the danger so that she could get herself, her daughter and her grandchildren out of the town.
After Sheriff Mossberg disappeared in the Old Wood, Matt came across Rebecca, who was wearing his shirt and badge. He gave the badge to Mrs Flowers, who attempted to get some impression from it. She and her mother both felt a great disturbance in the object. Mrs Flowers and Matt decided to look for him, with Mrs Flowers insisting that he wear some of the spell-woven clothes in her possession for protection.The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 30
Mrs Flowers and Matt decided that Tyrone Alpert could be trusted to help them, promising him the opportunity to fix up her Model T. Entering the Old Wood, Mrs Flowers used Mossberg's badge to give her a vision of his actions, which led to them finding one of Mossberg's bones, covered in children's teeth-marks.The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 31
Ready for the barricade, Mrs Flowers and Matt took to sleeping in the bunker that her uncle had built for his woodwork. One night, Mrs Flowers heard Caroline Forbes talk to Matt through the crack under the door, and told him that, should she return, he should ask her Mrs Forbes' first name.The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 40 A Gateway later opened outside of the bunker, and Elena, Stefan, Damon, Bonnie and Meredith returned, with Sage, Saber and Talon. As Mrs Flowers left to make sandwiches, Shinichi appeared to taunt them. He threatened to kill Meredith if they did not hand over Misao's star ball, but Mrs Flowers used Inari's Post-It notes to rescue her.The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 42
Sage left Mrs Flowers a note thanking her for her hospitality, and left behind Saber and Talon to protect the household. She made poultices for Stefan, for where his bones were sticking out of his skin. Paired with the blood donated by everyone else, Stefan was able to walk downstairs and thank Mrs Flowers in person.The Return: Midnight - Chapter 1
===The Last Midnight===
Mrs Flowers took charge of caring for Stefan, and also made a poultice for Elena after she burned herself.The Return: Midnight - Chapter 3 She was shaken after two officers from the Ridgemont Sheriff's Department arrived looking for Matt, almost knocking her onto the ground before Stefan caught her.The Return: Midnight - Chapter 13 She later listened to Meredith talk about her past and identity as a hunter-slayer, suggesting that she may have blocked out her memory of Cristian, and decided to recreate the urns used to contain Shinichi and Misao.The Return: Midnight - Chapter 14
When Meredith discovered that she was half-vampire, Mrs Flowers drugged her to give her a good night's sleep, as her mother suggested. Dr Alpert later called her, telling her that she was taking Mrs Honeycutt and several other people out of Fell's Church.The Return: Midnight - Chapter 21 Her mother told her that Matt was "not in Fell's Church", leading them to believe that he had been arrested and taken to Ridgemont. She helped him escape the court, removing the duct tape that held him to his chair.The Return: Midnight - Chapter 22 She fed everyone, including Saber, upon returning home.The Return: Midnight - Chapter 23
Mrs Flowers helped trap Shinichi in the root cellar of the boardinghouse after her mother told her that he (disguised as Stefan) was a kitsune.The Return: Midnight - Chapter 24 She, Matt and Meredith moved to the Honeycutt house after the boardinghouse was attacked by malach. Ghostly noises in the house were later found to be Cole Reece, living in the basement. She suggested pouring Power from Misao's star ball around the town to protect it after learning of the Last Midnight from Cole.The Return: Midnight - Chapter 30 They also decided to gather the children of the town at Matt's house, where Mrs Flowers fed them and tended to their injuries.The Return: Midnight - Chapter 32
Mrs Flowers gave her Blackberry to Meredith in order to search the Internet for information on "Inari", which resulted in her discovering Inari Saitou's true identity. Mrs Flowers decided that it was her duty to fight Inari, utilising a magic bullwhip left behind as a gift from Sage, as well as her own will, to merge with her mother and grandmother and become young.The Return: Midnight - Chapter 34
As "Theo", Mrs Flowers fought Inari. She was badly injured, but survived after Inari's star ball was destroyed by Elena. Following the fight, she returned to her normal form.The Return: Midnight - Chapter 37
===After the restoration===
Following the restoration of Fell's Church, Mrs Flowers spent an evening attempting to locate Damon's soul. Her mother told her to get Bonnie to attempt dowsing, and, the following morning, her grandmother took over her mind and drew a map of the Dark Dimension for this very purpose. She spent four days with Bonnie, Elena and Stefan, attempting to locate him, with Matt and Meredith occasionally visiting during the day. They finally managed to locate his soul, inside of his body on the smallest moon of the Nether World.Evensong: The War of Roses
==Physical description==
Mrs Flowers had blue eyes, a gentle face,"With her soft white hair and her gentle face and vague, amiable blue eyes, Mrs Flowers looked like the most harmless little old lady in the world. She wasn't. A witch by birth, and a gardener by vocation, she knew as much about black magic herbal toxins as about white magic healing poultices." (The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 21) and fair hair. She was tall and reed slender."And although she was reed slender, she was tall. Taller than Meredith, taller than Matt, taller than Stefan, wherever he was in the Dark Dimensions. She was this tall not only because she had grown so much, but because the train of her dress was just brushing the ground." (The Return: Midnight - Chapter 36) In her old age, she had grey hair. She was short and wrinkled,"She was a wrinkled little gnome of a woman with surprisingly bright black eyes." (The Awakening - Chapter 9) and often wore a gardening hat with artificial flowers on it."It had to be, she was wearing that gardening hat with the artificial flowers on it, as well as what looked like about seven or eight woolly sweaters." (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 30) By September, 1992, she was using a cane to get around."The other woman, walking with a cane but briskly, was Stefan's one-time landlady: the shape-changing, erudite, and most-thoroughly-perceptive town witch, Mrs. Flowers. (Evensong: Paradise Lost)
==Personality and traits==
As a child and young woman, Mrs Flowers was very happy. However, she resented the fact that she had to take in boarders in order to afford to keep the house, and became reclusive and bitter, later believing that she would have ended up like her grandmother. She did not like answering the telephone, repeatedly picking it up and disconnecting it when Elena Gilbert called. She held racial prejudices which she overcame with Stefan Salvatore, who she enjoyed teasing with subtle hints that she knew that he was a vampire. Mrs Flowers grew fond of Stefan, eventually opening up to him and his friends and becoming a useful ally to them. She thanked them for saving her from her solitary life.
==Behind the scenes==
*In The Awakening, Mrs Flowers is described as having "bright black eyes" and grey hair."One of the second-storey doors opened, and a grey head poked out" (The Awakening - Chapter 5) However, from The Return: Shadow Souls onwards, she is described as having blue eyes and white hair.
==Appearances==
*The Awakening 
*The Struggle
*The Fury 
*Dark Reunion
*The Return: Nightfall 
*Elena's Christmas
*The Return: Shadow Souls
*The Return: Midnight 
*Evensong: Paradise Lost
*Evensong: The War of Roses
==Notes and references==
Category:Flowers family
Category:Fell's Church residents
Category:19th century births
Category:Nurses
Category:Females
Category:Widowed individuals
Category:Psychics
Category:American individuals