The Memory Keeper's Daughter July 2–4, 1989 Summary & Analysis

Summary: July 2–4, 1989

In Cincinnati where Paul and Michelle live together, they argue about marriage, Paul promoting the idea and Michelle resisting. To her, marriage means starting a family, which she equates with sacrificing her life. Paul leaves for Lexington where he’ll help Norah prepare to put the house on the market. He remembers the stories his parents told him about their meeting, Norah ascending on an escalator and David following her. Paul reflects on his new passion for playing small venues with close contact with audiences. He has written a song named “A Tree in the Heart,” a reference to the photo that his father had taken during an open-heart surgery.

In helping Norah, Paul sees his role as a caretaker of the past for his future progeny. He alights from the car in the driveway to a shower of ash. He finds Norah at her homemade fire pit, shockingly burning his father’s photographs. She reassures him that she only burned the file box with all of the girls and explains the reason for her rage with David. Phoebe was born with Down syndrome and did not die at birth. All these years, Paul’s sister has been alive and well and living in Pittsburgh with the nurse, Caroline Gill, who helped deliver the twins. Norah and Paul ask each other why David kept Phoebe a secret and what Caroline could want.

Paul’s thoughts then range to his responsibility for his sister. He helps his mother with the house and researches Down syndrome at the library in the evenings. Two days later, Norah and Paul drive to Pittsburgh where Caroline has prepared Phoebe for a visit from Paul. Meeting in the yard outside her home, Phoebe gazes at Paul and touches his face. She takes command of the moment by introducing herself and shaking their hands. Norah introduces herself to Phoebe as her mother, but Phoebe corrects her that Caroline is her mother. Phoebe and Paul converse about the people in their lives, Michelle and Robert, and they look at Phoebe’s record collection. Paul finds he is able to follow her unique speech patterns as they talk about their musical preferences.

Analysis: July 2–4, 1989

Paul feels that his relationship with Michelle is stagnant, while she wants to maintain the status quo. Paul isn’t listening to her intensely felt concerns about her loss of identity should they get married, seemingly taking after his father in his inability to see beyond his own viewpoint. However, family issues soon occupy his thoughts. Paul hearkens back to his father’s first meeting with Norah, and he has incorporated his father’s photo into a song. Paul feels the responsibility of protecting the past and future for the family now. In this mood, he finds his mother burning the past. When Norah tells him the secret David withheld from them all their lives, the old enmity between Paul and David rushes vividly back. Phoebe becomes Paul’s priority as he steps into his new role as brother. Norah doesn’t know what her responsibilities are, as another woman raised Phoebe, but she wants to discover how she can connect with Phoebe.

When Norah and Paul go to Pittsburgh and meet Phoebe, Phoebe has trouble with the concept of having two mothers and refuses to think of anyone but Caroline holding that title. Paul and Phoebe get to know each other, Paul seeming to have the ability to connect with her emotionally and verbally right away. Phoebe has an intuitive sensitivity and directness Paul hasn’t encountered before. He realizes that his and his mother’s pity for this well-rounded, content woman, his adult sister, had been misplaced.

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