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Lulu is one of the two main maternal figures in Love Medicine. Lulu has nine devoted children, and she is fierce, independent, and loves deeply. Her lovers include Moses Pillager, Nector Kashpaw, Henry Lamartine, Beverly Lamartine, and a Mexican migrant worker who fathers her only daughter. 

Lulu does not care much what others think of her, and she determines to live unapologetically. The anecdote of the dead man she found in her woodland playhouse is poignant and revealing, for she is overcome with curiosity about death and male sexuality, both of which she satisfies.

Lulu is an activist on behalf of the women in her tribe. She protests when tribal officials, including Nector, want to reclaim her house and land, claiming a higher law than that of the white man’s numbers and measurements. Lulu wants justice, not the reparations they offer. She criticizes the factory they propose as a trite seller of trinkets and delivers an essential truth that every inch of land belongs to her people. After the fire, Lulu fittingly gets a house that overlooks the whole town.

In the end, in the Senior Citizen home, Lulu still loves Nector, but after he dies, she makes her peace with Marie. After Lulu’s eye surgery, she needs help and Marie steps in. After being rivals for so many years, the peace between these two women gives the novel one of its most optimistic and hopeful moments. When Marie wipes Lulu’s eyes with a warm washcloth, she can see more clearly, and their relationship, like her eyesight, is healing.

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