Sophia Alpert

Dr. SophiaTheophilia Flowers: Well, besides you children, I still have friends like Sophia Alpert and Orime Saitou. They are both healing women, and very good at it. We still talk about different uses for my herbs. (The Return: Midnight - Chapter 37) Alpert (b. before 1932) was a doctor at Fell's Church, Virginia who visited and treated her patients at home rather than working at the clinic. She had a daughter, who gave Dr. Alpert two grandchildren — Tyrone and Jayneela. She was known locally for her old-fashioned methods of doctoring and distributing medicines in her SUV.
==Biography==
Sophia Alpert was born before 1932, and was a resident of Fell's Church, Virginia. She would later wish that she had been a girl scout as a child, but acknowledged that times were different during her childhood.Alpert: I wish I'd been a girl scout. They teach you how to light fires and tie knots and things. But when I was young, things were... well, different. (Matt & Elena: Tenth Date: On Wickery Pond)
Alpert became a doctor, independent of the clinic, and her interest in herbs and alternative medicine led to her befriending Theophilia Flowers and Orime Saitou. At some point, she had a daughter who, as a result of a relationship with a man, gave Dr. Alpert two grandchildren named Tyrone and Jayneela.
In the summer of 1992, Dr. Alpert was called to the Saitou house by "Jim Bryce" (actually a shapeshifted Shinichi) to see to Isobel Saitou, who was mutilating herself thanks to a malach possession.Meredith Sulez: Jimmy, you have to call Dr. Alpert right away, and then I think they're going to have to go to the hospital in Ridgemont. Isobel's already done permanent damage to herself - God knows how much. (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 20) Upon her arrival, she tended to "Jim", who Isobel had hit over the head with a lamp, and took "Jim", Isobel and "Obaasan Saitou" (Misao disguised as Inari's alias) to her car, planning on taking them to the hospital in Ridgemont. However, a falling tree blocked their path, and the sound of nearby malach caused Isobel to run into the Old Wood, Alpert, "Jim" and "Obaasan" chasing after her.Alpert: Somehow, a tree fell across the road while we were letting you off, and we couldn't get around it to get to the hospital, or anywhere else. Not only that, but it was a tree with a hornet's nest or something inside it. Isobel woke up like that and when she heard the hornets she scrambled out and ran from them. We ran after her. I don't mind saying I would have done the same if I'd been alone. (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 32)
In the woods, Alpert, "Jim" and "Obaasan" ran into Meredith Sulez, Bonnie McCullough, Matt Honeycutt and Theophilia Flowers, with whom she was friendly. They found their way to a fake version of the Flowers boardinghouse, where Shinichi and Misao revealed themselves. She, along with the rest of the group, were to be sacrificed for the Moonspire ceremony, but was saved by Elena Gilbert.
==Physical description==
Sophia Alpert had dark-brown skin"for an instant laying her pale hand on Dr. Alpert's long-fingered, dark brown one." (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 22) and short salt-and-pepper hair,"Meredith had a bloody nose and Dr. Alpert's short pepper-and-salt hair was standing on end [...]" (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 22) which was later iron-gray."Dr. Alpert had ruffled her own iron-gray hair with her fingers, then ruffled her [grand]son's black hair fondly." (The Return: Shadow Souls - Chapter 31) She had a brusque and calming voice,"[...] a voice that was brusque and calming at once was saying." (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 22) which was "both crusty and kind"."He tried to stand up but Dr. Alpert - it was her voice that was both crusty and kind - pushed him back onto the couch." (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 22)
==Behind the scenes==
*In The Return: Nightfall, it is made clear that Tyrone and Jayneela are Alpert's grandchildren. However, in The Return: Shadow Souls, Alpert and Tyrone are referred to as being mother and son. Given that this is the only instance where Tyrone is said to be her son, and that Tyrone is said to be her grandson just ten chapters before, this is considered to be a mistake rather than a retcon.
==Appearances==
*Matt & Elena: Tenth Date: On Wickery Pond
*The Return: Nightfall 
*The Return: Shadow Souls
*The Return: Midnight 
*Evensong: Paradise Lost
==Notes and references==
Category:Doctors
Category:Females
Category:Humans
Category:Fell's Church residents
Category:20th century births
Category:Alpert family
Category:African American individuals