The Memory Keeper’s Daughter: Chapter 7: May 1965 Summary & Analysis

Norah and David take Paul on a hike and a picnic one breezy spring day. David collects small stones and old fossils on the way, and briefly pauses to feel the pulse of an older hiker he notices struggling. When the woman claims she’s just suffering mild palpitations, and has had them all her life, David is thrown back in time to memories of his sister, June, who was born with a congenital heart defect and struggled with her health all her life until she died at the age of twelve. David also thinks of Phoebe—in the pocket of his jacket there is a letter from Caroline Gill, which was delivered to his office earlier. The letter states that Phoebe is happy and has no heart troubles.

Things between David and Norah have been better lately. She has invested deeply in raising Paul, and her grief over Phoebe seems to have abated. After getting rid of the negatives of the photographs Norah took the drunken night she went to the old house, David has started over with new film, and often photographs Norah in the garden or playing with Paul. Now, as Norah peeks down the mountain over a precipice, David takes a photograph of her. As he does, he wishes that he could have protected her from grief and loss—he didn’t understand that in giving Phoebe away, he’d be adding to her grief, and his own. The letter from Caroline was postmarked from Cleveland, and David believes she and Phoebe are there.

Norah leads David to a meadow where wild strawberries are growing on thick bushes. They unpack a picnic and remove Paul from his carrier, letting him sit on a blanket on the grass. Norah and David nibble lazily at the spread and feed Paul cheese and berries. The afternoon is perfect, and Norah reminisces aloud about playing with Bree in a field near the farm where they grew up. David massages her feet, and Paul takes a nap in the shade. As David looks at the sleeping Paul, he is determined to make sure that Paul does not “grow up, as David had, suffering the loss of his sister.”

Norah, noticing the darkness pass over her husband’s face, asks him what’s wrong, and why he’s so “far away.” David says he’s just lost in thought. He asks Norah what her dreams are for Paul, and Norah answers that she hopes Paul will be like his father. David deflects, insisting Norah shouldn’t want Paul to take after him. Norah asks David what has gone wrong between them, and David grows annoyed that she is “stir[ring] things up again.” Norah continues on, though, asking David why he refuses to acknowledge the fact that Phoebe ever existed. David begs Norah not to “ruin the beautiful day” they’re having.

Norah replies that she still thinks often about what their daughter would be like. She demands to know whether David misses Phoebe, too, and David admits that he “think[s] about her all the time.” Norah kisses David deeply, and he leans into the embrace before pulling away, unable to stop thinking about how he has lied to his wife. Norah asks David what’s wrong—he lies again, telling her he’s concerned about a case at work. Norah asks him if they should try for a second child, but David says “the timing [feels] wrong.” Norah protests that they should do it for Paul—who no doubt remembers being in the womb with his sister, and misses her. David retorts plainly that he’s “not ready” for another child.

Norah admits that sometimes, when she’s alone in the house, she feels like Phoebe is “so close, just in the other room.” David is startled by Norah’s admission, and finds himself thinking about how profoundly his sister June’s death “broke” his mother. David warns Norah that having another baby won’t “fix things.” Norah stands up and walks off angrily across the field. David feels for the envelope in his pocket and thinks about the photographs of Phoebe within it.

Emotionally exhausted, David lies back on the blanket and drifts off into memory. He thinks back on rattlesnake hunting with his father—the snakes were valuable, and the money the two of them earned trapping and selling them paid for food, medical bills, and, eventually, David’s college tuition. When Norah’s faraway voice startles David from his reverie, he mistakes a stick near the edge of Paul’s blanket for a snake, and picks it up and throws it angrily across the field. Norah, perturbed by David’s sudden violence, suggests they pack up and go home.

On the hike back down, David recalls the other duty he had in childhood in addition to snake trapping: caring for his sickly sister June. David’s mother wanted him to watch her constantly, but David often found himself growing bored of his wan, weak sister. One weekend, when he came home from college, his mother told him that June was dead. She implored him to use his time in college to “learn something that could help in the world.” In that moment, David felt a strong sense of resentment that even after June’s death, his life was still not his own.

Back at the car, Norah tells David, in reference to the stick-throwing, that he doesn’t have to try to be a “hero” all the time. She declares that she “hate[s]” feeling like David is always trying to protect her. As Norah buckles Paul into his car seat, David feels a flurry of emotions—among them, anger at both himself for giving Phoebe away, and Caroline for making “an impossible situation even worse.”