Gifford is probably one of the most tragic members of the Mayfair family. She was the perfect example of so many women who become so enrapped in taking care of others and being there for everyone else, that she often ignored herself and her own needs. She also ignored many of her own talents and intuitions inheireted from her family, which inevitably led to her early demise.
Gifford Mayfair was only 46 when she died. She was born in New Orleans a "tenfold Mayfair" ["ten times from within the fold(family); ten different lines of descent"]. Gifford was a granddaughter of Julien Mayfair, daughter of Laura Lee Mayfair...
Gifford spent nearly all her (early) life taking care of her mother who was described as "ill, a recluse, suffering, and pacing the floor behind closed doors" who died while she and her sister (Alicia Mayfair) were very young. Still, she stayed with older Mayfairs (Ancient Evylen, her grandmother) and continued to spend her time helping to take care of others: walking the Avenue with Ancient Evelyn, or reading to Grandaddy Fielding...
But she always wanted to leave. Gifford had always dreamed of another life, living in far off places like Los Angeles (she and her husband, Ryan, even fantasized about China or Brazil) however, she was always held back by the needs of the Mayfair Family. Her husband immediately became a member of the family law firm after school, and Gifford was disuaded from even going very far away for college. Everytime she though of leaving, there was something keeping her (her mother's illness, her sister's drunken and troublesome life, her husband's career).
But Gifford found her escapes in her little house on the white beaches of Destin, Fl. "The cold, the smell of the water, the smell of the fire-all of it was Florida in winter for Gifford, her hideaway, her refuge, her safe place to be." But on her last visit, it would become anything but a safe place to be...
After marrying her cousin, Ryan Mayfair, the couple had 3 children (Pierce, Shelby, and Lilia) and then Gifford's responcibilities became tending to them as well. Indeed, Gifford spent most of her time taking care of everyone else. Planning weddings/dinners/funerals/receptions/ect. and helping the family prepare for any events to come. Even playing the major parental role for her niece, Mona Mayfair, who's parents (Gifford's sister Alicia, and cousin Patrick) were both "full-time drunks".
Though Gifford was constantly scolding Mona, in truth, she was most proud of Mona because she could do all the things that Gifford was never brave enough to do. Gifford admired Mona's accomplishments and in a way, saw the life she'd really wanted to live in Mona's life.
Not to say that Gifford did not play a role as a Mayfair witch! On the contrary, though many of her talents were seldom used or even thought about, Gifford could sense certain things. When something happened to close members of the family, she always was one of the first to know. On one occasion she had wakened with a scream saying "Somebody's dead" on the night Dierdre had died (just moments before the family call came to their home to confirm it).
And Gifford had always known the truth about Lasher as well (though seldom would admit it). During her last stay at Destin, she spoke on the phone with her husband, Ryan, about Rowan's disappearence, he asked her what her witch's intuition told her had really happened on Christmas Day (when their cousin, Rowan, had disappeared):
"The man came through on Christmas Day. That thing, that spirit-I'm not going to say its name, you know its name-it got into the world and it did something to Rowan. That's what happened. The man's no longer at First Street. All of us know it. All of us who ever saw him know he's not there. The house is empty. The thing got into the world. It-...The thing took Rowan away. This isn't finished, Ryan!"
And it wasn't. That very evening the "thing", "the spirit", the man came to Gifford at her little house on the beach and half coerced/half raped Gifford (trying to produce a mate for himself). In order for a witch to bear a child for this being, she needed an extra chromosome, which Gifford did not have (though he had no way of knowing this, so simply tried to track down each Mayfair witch in the family to mate with) and incidentally caused Gifford to hemorrage and bleed to death in the surf of the white beaches of Destin.
"...it had all been true and she had failed to stop it, and now it had reached out though the great tangled mass of whispered secrets and threats and it had killed her."
