The Old Willis Place: A Ghost Story

Each of the characters in The Old Willis Place grapple with loneliness or isolation of some kind, be it enforced solitude (such as that of Diana and Georgie), or one of their own making (Miss Lilian). The need for human relationships is what drives the story forward, and it is through this theme that Mary Downing Hahn reminds readers that who you spend your life with is just as important as how you spend it.

Diana and Georgie have always had each other. However, Diana craves friendship from someone other than her brother. She misses people from school, including her “favorite teacher, Miss Perry, and [her] best friend, Jane, and a red-haired boy named Stephen” (13). Diana’s daydreams of a friendship with Lissa often revolve around seemingly simple things in life, such as when Lissa sits on a lion bench that Diana frequently used before she died. When Georgie asks Diana if she minds, she shakes her head, as “Seeing Lissa in [Diana’s] favorite place made [Diana] feel closer to her, as if [Lissa] was truly [her] friend” (41). Diana’s loneliness and longing to meet a girl her age are almost too much to bear, which is why she breaks the rules for a chance at friendship.