By the end of the novel, Meridian has become like the X-Men's Professor Xavier. Having done good her whole life, she's now setting out to create a crack team of super-heroic civil rights activists like herself. Truman has finally decided to join the squad and Anne-Marion might not be far behind.
The Meridian we see here is one that we haven't seen in a long time. Her sickness seems to be receding. After years of going bald, her head is now covered with "the soft wool of her newly grown hair" (3.34.1). This is a revitalized Meridian, perhaps by the realization that she needs to let go of the guilt of her past.
Truman (our team's anti-hero equivalent to Wolverine) is becoming more like Meridian. He faints, as Meridian has done many times before. In this daze, he visualizes "Anne-Marion herself arriving, lost someday," just as he did with Meridian (3.34.9). We can only imagine that he will teach Anne-Marion just as Meridian taught him.
See, Meridian's desire to change herself actually worked. Beyond the countless poor people she has helped in small ways, she has transformed Truman—someone whose relationship with the Civil Rights Movement was frayed at best—into someone willing to suffer and fight for justice. Like good ol' Professor X, Meridian inspires her like-minded peers to better themselves and gives hope to those who need it the most.