Lydia Alexandrovna was the housekeeper for Otyets Semyon Borisovitch, the crude priest Will met in Kholodnoye, Siberia, as he began his travels through Lyra's world. Lydia Alexandrovna waited on the priest and Will, bringing first tea, then the soup and bread. Her sister was the source of the priest's news the the armoured bears were travelling down the river close to Kholodnoye. The priest's crude joke about the elderly woman and his vodka made Will "hideously uneasy."