Faith Meredith was the third of John Meredith's four children. Although all the kids were independent, Faith was the most high-spirited. She was a positive young girl who laughed a lot and always thought she could fix things—right wrongs, heal relationships. When the manse kids discovered the runaway, Mary Vance, sleeping in a neighbor's hay loft, she was the first to embrace her and invite her home to eat and then to stay with them. Mary was wearing a dirty and tattered dress so Faith gave her one of her new dresses.
When Lida stopped by the house with some mackerel her father had caught, Faith was astounded to see that the little girl was shoeless and was walking barefooted in the cold mud and icy waters that covered the ground. Faith didn't think even a minute before she was taking her socks and shoes off and giving them to Lida. She had two pairs of shoes and Lida had none. To Faith, there was no choice in what she must do.
Like any child left virtually on her own, Faith made a lot of missteps for which she was soundly criticized by the town busybodies. Faith didn't care as much about her own reputation as she did for that of her father. She would go to any length to save his reputation and take the blame for her actions so that her father's position and standing in the community wasn't threatened.
Faith was a good judge of human nature. When she met Rosemary West, she knew that the kind woman would make the perfect wife for her widowed father and the perfect step-mother for her and her brothers and sister. Eventually, Faith was proven right when the two got together and plans were being made for their wedding.
