Benjamin Holland had not married until late in life , and his wife had declared war on his family at sight . She was a stranger in Avonlea , -- a widow , with a three year-old child . She made few friends , as some people always asserted that she was not in her right mind . Within a year of her second marriage Christopher was born , and from the hour of his birth his mother had worshiped him blindly . He was her only solace . For him she toiled and pinched and saved . Benjamin Holland had not been `` fore-handed '' when she married him ; but , when he died , six years after his marriage , he was a well-to-do man . Naomi made no pretense of mourning for him . It was an open secret that they had quarreled like the proverbial cat and dog . Charles Holland and his wife had naturally sided with Benjamin , and Naomi fought her battles single-handed . After her husband 's death , she managed to farm alone , and made it pay . When the mysterious malady which was to end her life first seized on her she fought against it with all the strength and stubbornness of her strong and stubborn nature . Her will won for her an added year of life , and then she had to yield . She tasted all the bitterness of death the day on which she lay down on her bed , and saw her enemy come in to rule her house . But Caroline Holland was not a bad or unkind woman . True , she did not love Naomi or her children ; but the woman was dying and must be looked after for the sake of common humanity . Caroline thought she had done well by her sister-in-law . When the red clay was heaped over Naomi 's grave in the Avonlea burying ground , Caroline took Eunice and Christopher home with her . Christopher did not want to go ; it was Eunice who reconciled him . He clung to her with an exacting affection born of loneliness and grief .
In the days that followed Caroline XXXXX was obliged to confess to herself that there would have been no doing anything with Christopher had it not been for Eunice .
Avonlea Caroline Christopher Eunice Holland Naomi first right war years