How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
[The girl in black] was on the platform now, her dusty black skirt spotted by the rain. For some reason [Stan] thought of Mum's old wedding dress […] It was as far from that girl's dusty black as anything on earth could ever be. (26.26)
Lucy, the deaf-mute, pregnant girl Stan meets on the train, is one of the smallest, yet most haunting characters in the book. As he looks at her, it's obvious Stan is thinking about how quickly a parent's plans for their children can go awry. Seeing Lucy on the train is the moment Stan begins to consider how his actions toward Lonnie could affect his grandson's future.
Quote #5
[Lily] didn't know exactly when Nan's party had become so important to her, only that it had. […] Why shouldn't their family have one brilliant, perfect day? Wasn't such a day something everyone had a right to, a day you could always remember, no matter what happened to you ever after in your life? A whole perfect day? (27.36)
As we discussed in the "What's Up with the Title?" section, there's a reason this book's called One Whole and Perfect Day. Lily's greatest wish is to have a normal, well-adjusted family, if only for just one day. What's so great about the party she ends up getting is that it has obviously healed a lot of wounds between them. There likely won't be any more feuds or ax threats in the Samsons' future.
Quote #6
Once Rose herself had lived in a single room. A sad little room with a camp bed, a table, and a chair, and a bare wooden floor that had echoed so frighteningly. Rose needed to know that Clara's room wasn't like that; she needed to know, silly though it seemed, that Clara's room didn't have an echoing wooden floor. She needed to see it. (32.4)
Having experienced the worst loss a young adult can possibly go through, Rose's dream for Clara is that she will never feel the loneliness and emptiness that plagued Rose after her parents' deaths. Her desire for Clara to be happy manifests itself in her need to see that Clara is doing all right on her own, without the kind of grief that hung over her own college years.