Roberta Sparrow ("Grandma Death") in Donnie Darko

Roberta Sparrow taught science at Middlesex Ridge School before Professor Monnitoff's time and, before that, was a nun. At some point she left the church, wrote "The Philosophy of Time Travel", and withdrew to the house on the Old Gun Road. By 1988 she is very old and spends her days walking to the mailbox at the end of her drive and back, checking for a letter that never comes. The children call her Grandma Death.

Note Roberta Sparrow by Francesco Rizzello

Roberta Sparrow is a mystifying presence which is of paramount importance to the unravelling of events in the narrative.

It is almost entirely certain that Sparrow was herself a Living Receiver who penned the Philosophy of Time Travel as a means of ensuring the methodology to prevent the collapse of the Primary Universe for future Living Receivers.

Along God's channel, we may classify Sparrow as a Prophet.

To our knowledge, Sparrow's work is the only effort made by a human being to prevent the demise of the Primary Universe by way of a scientific contribution which may effectively guide future Receivers in their quest.

If the Living Receiver shapes their destiny through God's volition to return the Artifact and restore order along God's channel, Sparrow's scientific essay is the essential guide for travelling along God's channel.

By that virtue, the Prophet Sparrow may be individualized as the one who interprets God's volition to the benefit of the preservation of His creation; the will of Donnie as Living Receiver may therefore be characterized as an extension of God's will as interpreted by Roberta Sparrow.

Sparrow's interpretation must be correct and reflective of God's will, since following its canon leads Donnie to restoring the Primary Universe.

Her findings may be described as the first amalgamation of scientific and biblical Truth, the point at which faith and doubt entwine.

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She speaks once in the film. After Eddie Darko nearly runs her down, she beckons Donnie close and whispers: "Every living creature on this earth dies alone." Donnie later writes to her, and it is her house - with "cellar door" carved beside the entrance - where Gretchen is killed and Frank is shot on the night of October 29. Sparrow herself is standing in the road when Frank's car swerves.

Her book is given to Donnie by Monnitoff and is the film's only explanation of its own events. Whether she was once a Living Receiver is not stated on screen; the book's existence is the only evidence.

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