The Way Blessings Can Come From Loss

Alice’s joy from adopting Billy, Tina’s relationship with William, and Chrissie’s marriage to Jackie are all examples of the way blessings can sprout from the most unlikely of situations. One lesson that the author seems to want the reader to take away from this novel is that blessings can come from loss. In each of these situations, the characters suffered a good deal of loss before they received a blessing. Some blessings came from another’s loss while others were a direct result of the loss suffered by that character.

One of the first examples of a blessing that comes from another person’s loss is the joy Alice feels when she adopts Billy. Both of these characters have suffered losses. Alice lost her infant son to consumption while Billy lost his father to the war. His...