But, in response to some unseen summons, she suddenly materialised with her family on the podium.
When she first materialised on screen 20 years ago this week, audiences had never been faced with a female lead who was so unlikable, so frustrating and, ultimately, so watchable, because she is a perfect simulacrum of our worst selves.
At any moment she might materialise before me - in the middle of my living room, at my bedroom door, in the hallway late at night.
With volunteers' help, she opened Isel Hall once a week to the public and, though her vision of a colony for artists and craftspeople never materialised, she housed at different times the potter Edward Hughes, the sculptress Josefina de Vasconcellos, the artist Nancy Tingey, the musicologist Finbar O'Suilleabhain and the art historian David Cross.
The Brotherhood's promise to introduce the "principle of citizenship and end all forms of discrimination" had not materialised, she added.
The first three words of the second chapter – "She will go" – just materialised.
The strong surge of Tory support for which she had been hoping materialised right across southern England, but in the North swings were low and in Scotland it was Labour who gained ground, displacing as they did so Mrs Thatcher's likely Scottish Secretary, Mr Teddy Taylor.
That predicted top five place for the UK's Molly Smitten-Downes never materialised - she came in in 17th place - after securing 40 points for Children of the Universe.
Fears that electronic cigarettes could become a gateway into smoking for young people have not materialised so far, she added.
