THERESA

Theresa is a woman who happens to be transient when she encounters baby Ivy. Ivy was brought into a women's shelter by a well-meaning homeless woman named Karen (in issue #0196), and when Karen and her friends started overwhelming Ivy with attention, she snapped and threw one of them across the room, which caused the whole group of women to retreat from her. Ivy reacted to the abandonment with loud crying, which brought Theresa's attention for the first time. When the shelter worker demanded that someone take care of the crying baby, Theresa volunteered.

Later the same night Theresa witnessed Ivy blearily flying after waking up from a nightmare, and she doesn't know what to make of it but also can't help but respond to the needs of a poor distraught child. Theresa is very maternal, and is experienced in raising kids since she had three of her own before her ex-husband got custody of them.

Despite having no idea what she's taken on, Theresa becomes a bit of a guardian angel for Ivy; due to her own issues, she can't take anywhere near full responsibility for watching her, but she's a good voice of reason to push Melanie in the right direction sometimes when the child's lack of practicality prevents her from taking very good care of Ivy.

My favorite Theresa pictures (click on the small pictures to see large, good quality scans):