The dead woman whose memory has served as Amos Burton's deepest private moral reference for two decades.
Lydia has died before the present chapter, and Erich's message brings Amos Burton back toward Earth to learn what happened and make sure matters are properly handled. Amos remembers her as older than he was when he left, with gray in her hair and lines around her eyes and mouth.
Her influence remains active in him. Lydia's face is tattooed over his heart, and Amos has spent twenty years measuring choices against the question of what she would want. In his grief, he imagines her naming the pain in his throat and empty chest correctly, helping him understand that he is mourning rather than simply becoming sick or angry.
Remembered as an older woman with gray in her hair and lines around her eyes and mouth; her face is preserved in Amos's tattoo over his heart.
Lydia is a deceased but foundational figure in Amos's moral history, the person whose imagined judgment still guides him.