Dr. Bennett is the Bloom family’s longstanding doctor, who has nursed Edward through his cancer. Dr. Bennett has become more like a friend to the family after tending to their medical needs for so long. Dr. Bennett is extremely old, and he is heartbroken when he has to break the news to William and Sandra that Edward is approaching death. Edward is such a larger-than-life person that it even seems to come as a shock to Dr. Bennett—a man of science—that Edward isn’t going to live forever.