Who is Mr. Hugh Flood from Up in the Old Hotel and Other Stories and what is their importance?

Mr. Hugh Flood is a character in several of Mitchell's essays, Mr. Flood was actually a compilation of characters Mitchell had met rather than a single person. He was past ninety, ate nothing but seafood and planned to live to be 115 years old. Mr. Flood often invited Mitchell to visit and shared a bushel of black oysters with him. He was a very neat man, visited the barber every day and admitted that he was always relieved when someone else died because it left more room for him.