Dalia Willard is the novel’s deuteragonist, a midwife whose profession as a giver of life makes her a natural foil to Travis. She is a resilient and nurturing single mother, defined by her deep love for her daughters, Layla and Neda. Dalia’s journey is one of deep loss and gradual healing, making her a round and dynamic character. Before tragedy strikes, she is depicted as a capable, if weary, woman navigating the daily challenges of motherhood and a demanding job. Her life is grounded in the tangible, human world of births, bedtime stories, and community gardens, a stark contrast to Travis’s ethereal, timeless existence. Her initial interactions with Travis are hesitant, but a bond forms through their shared moments of quiet companionship.

The central conflict of Dalia’s arc is her experience of grief following Layla’s death, which is revealed later to be yet another loss following the death of her brother, Samuel Preston. The two deaths cause her to isolate herself from the world and repeatedly contemplate dying by suicide, introducing the overarching internal conflict of how to continue living when life necessitates loss. The narrative unflinchingly portrays the non-linear and all-consuming nature of her pain, showing how it renders her unable to care for herself or her surviving daughter, Neda. Her recovery is not a simple or swift process; it is a slow, arduous journey back to life, facilitated by the connections she eventually re-establishes with others, particularly Travis and Nick. This journey illustrates the theme of The Role of Community in Overcoming Grief, as their presence, however imperfect, pulls her back from the brink of death.

The chapters titled “A VERY OLD WOMAN” expose Dalia’s full character arc. These sections are revealed to be flash-forwards to Dalia at ages 89 and 90. This structural choice reveals that she both survives her immense grief and goes on to live a long, full life, eventually becoming a great-grandmother to a baby named Layla. These glimpses into her future reinforce the novel’s non-linear perspective on time, showing her life as a complete, unified whole. Instead of implying that she was always destined to live and undermining the stakes of her earlier depression, this twist emphasizes the necessity of relationships in creating a fulfilling life. Travis technically knew her date of death, but he also had to bond with and support her to ensure she reached it, depicting every moment in a lifetime as equally important. Her final scene, a peaceful death in Travis’s presence, brings her story to a gentle, satisfying conclusion, confirming the importance of working through pain to experience future joy.

Layla Preston, Dalia’s eight-year-old daughter, is a key minor character whose life and death serve as the catalyst for the novel’s central emotional arc. Though her time in the story is brief, she is presented as a perceptive and creative child who possesses a wisdom beyond her years. Layla is one of the few characters who seems to understand Travis’s true nature, challenging him with a directness that cuts through his practiced detachment. Her fascination with photography, particularly her habit of taking pictures of what her mother calls “pointless stuff,” symbolizes her intuitive grasp of the novel’s central idea that every small, fleeting moment of life has inherent value. Her creativity and bravery are on full display as she faces her illness, her primary concern being not for herself but for the loose ends she wants to tie up with her family.

Layla’s death from meningitis permanently disrupts the lives of the main characters. For her mother, Dalia, it triggers a descent into all-consuming grief. For Travis, it marks the end of his emotional impartiality, forcing him to experience loss in a personal, painful way that alters his eternal existence. She is an active participant in her own final moments, engaging with Travis in a dialogue about death, meaning, and what lies beyond. In this conversation, she articulates the fundamental tragedy of a life cut short but also demonstrates an acceptance lacking in many of the adult souls Travis collects. Her memory shapes the rest of the novel, guiding Dalia’s path toward healing and ultimately being honored in the naming of her great-granddaughter.

Nick, Layla’s father, is a significant minor character who parallels Dalia, showing a different but equally self-destructive response to grief. His struggle with an alcohol addiction and unreliability defines his initial role in the narrative. As an absent and often neglectful father, he is wracked with guilt, a feeling that intensifies after Layla’s death and sends him into a deeper spiral of addiction. His inability to cope with his pain renders him incapable of supporting Dalia or himself, illustrating how grief can amplify personal failings.

However, Nick’s character arc is ultimately one of redemption. After hitting rock bottom, he begins the slow process of recovery, a journey initiated by Dalia’s compassionate intervention. Their shared loss forges a new, more mature bond between them, and they learn to support one another as grieving parents. Nick’s thoughtful reflection on life being like a hotel rather than a house—a series of temporary stays, some good and some bad—is a major turning point in his understanding of suffering and acceptance. By the end of the novel, he has found stability through a new career and his commitment to sobriety, and he and Dalia are married, which she acknowledges in the chapters focusing on her 89-year-old self.