Cousin Eunice Timeline and Summary

Eunice grows up with her mother and father at their house at 1724 Ocean Drive in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
She dreams of becoming a nun, but her mother discourages her; Eunice never marries, though, and lives with her mother.
In March of 1981, Eunice comes home from work to find her mother has died.
Eunice enrolls in religious instruction classes and finalizes her plans to become a nun.
In the summer of 1981, Eunice is frightened when she sees four strange children sitting by her front door. The children tell her that they are her cousins and that they have no other place to go.
Eunice agrees to let the kids stay while the police try to look for their mother, who abandoned them.
When their mother is finally found in a mental hospital in Massachusetts, Eunice's spiritual advisor, Father Joseph, convinces her to adopt the children to give them a permanent home.
One day, Eunice comes home from work to find that the Tillerman kids aren't there. But Dicey has left a note—the kids are on their way to visit their grandmother in Crisfield.
Eunice writes to her Aunt Abigail to let her know that the children are coming and that she believes it's God's will for them to return to her so that she can raise them in her home.