Family

The Widower's Tale is a story about family and the interpersonal dynamics that exist to create it. Percy married Poppy and they had two daughters, thinking that they would be a happy unit forever. Poppy's death altered the dynamic, but a family remained. Today, Percy struggles with relating to his two daughters and thinks that it should be easier since he is essentially the one who raised them. That does not necessarily guarantee knowledge of a child who becomes an adult, plus the dynamic of parent and child alters when the child also becomes an adult. Percy does his best at keeping his family together through phone calls, visits and dinners because it is important to him that the family remain intact.

Percy is also good at cultivating inter-generational relationships with his grandchildren, especially Robert, not only because it keeps him young but he enjoys being...