'she was in no way prepared to be a mother , ' said miss carlotta to the police officer antha spent hours typing letters and stories and poetry , and nancy and the others had to beat on the door of the room to make her realize that deirdre was crying in the cradle and needed to be given a bottle or nursed antha became 'hysterical ' during this last argument she ran up the two flights of steps to the attic , screaming to be left alone carlotta , fearing that antha would hurt herself which she often did , according to carlotta persuaded her into juhen 's old room there carlotta discovered that antha had tried to scratch her own eyes out , and indeed had succeeded in drawing considerable blood when carlotta tried to control her , antha broke away , falling backwards through the window , and on to the roof of the cast-iron porch she apparently crawled to the edge of it , and then lost her balance or deliberately jumped she died instantly when her head struck the flagstones three stories below cortland was beside himself when he learned of his niece 's death he went immediately to first street what he told his wife in new york later was that carlotta was absolutely distraught the priest was with her , a father kevin , from the redemptonst parish carlotta said over and over that nobody understood how fragile antha had been 'i tried to stop her1 ' carlotta said 'what in the name of god was i expected to do1 ' millie dear and belle were too upset to talk about it belle seemed to be confusing it all with the death of stella only nancy had frankly disagreeable things to say , complaining that antha had been spoiled and sheltered all her life , that her head was full of silly dreams when alice flanagan , the nurse , was contacted by cortland , she seemed afraid she was elderly , and partially blind she said she did n't know anything about antha 's ever hurting herself or becoming hysterical or anything like that she took her orders from miss carlotta miss carlotta had been good to her family miss flanagan did n't want to lose her job 'i just want to take care of that darling baby , ' she told the police 'that darling baby needs me now ' indeed she took care of deirdre mayfair until the girl was five years old .