Rowena Ross

Rowena Ross  was the eldest child of the Ross family, and had hydrocephalus. Robert loved her, and blamed himself for her death.

Biography
Rowena was born with hydrocephalus (accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid within the brain) which cause increased pressure inside the skull).

Rowena fell from her wheelchair on a Sunday, nobody watching her at the time. Stuart was supposed to take care of her, but was busy playing with Meggy. Despite this fact, Robert blamed himself because he was the guardian of her. Rowena died the next morning at the age of 25, which was ten years more than her life expectancy at that time.

Personality
She appears to be gentle, having a child-like quality due to her condition. Robert burned a photo of her later in the book, thinking that she shouldn't see the gruesome reality in war, far too innocent to be there.

Physical appearance
Due to her condition, she had an adult-sized head but a body of a ten-year-old, thus having the inability to walk. She wore a white dress and had short, curly hair. Her expression was "lovely" and "pensive". When he was younger, Robert remembered her being the first person he saw, and thought she was his mother.

Etymology
The name "Rowena" does not appear in Old English sources such as Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It was first recorded by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae (in various spellings, including Ronwen, Renwein, and Romwenna), and may represent a Medieval Latin corruption of some lost Old English or other Germanic name.

It is possibly a Latinized form of a Germanic name derived from the elements hrod "fame" and wunn "joy, bliss".

Trivia

 * The character of Rowena was inspired by Mary Macdonald, daughter of Sir John A. Macdonald, who was similarly afflicted with hydrocephalus.