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Richard DeTamble
Annette is Henry’s mother. She was a renowned vocalist when Henry was very young. Her husband Richard is also a successful violinist, and they frequently traveled abroad with Henry to perform. At the time of Annette’s tragic death, the family had been planning to move to Vienna. When Richard was arranging things abroad, Annette and five-year-old Henry got into a car accident in which Annette was decapitated. While Henry’s time-traveling condition saved his life, his mother’s death haunts him for the rest of his life. His time-traveling episodes frequently pull him back to the scene of her accident, though he can do nothing to change the results of the crash. Henry is both thankful and troubled by the way his condition allows him to see and interact with his mother in the past. While he gets to witness her happy, seeing her in the past keeps his memory of her, as well as his grief, fresh in his mind.
Annette Lyn Robinson Quotes in The Time Traveler’s Wife
The The Time Traveler’s Wife quotes below are all either spoken by Annette Lyn Robinson or refer to Annette Lyn Robinson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
“My mother dying…it’s the pivotal thing…everything else goes around and around it…I dream about it, and I also—time travel to it. Over and over. […] if you had enough time to really look at everything, you would see me. I am in cars, behind bushes, on the bridge, in a tree. I have seen it from every angle, and I am even a participant in the aftermath: I call the airport from a nearby gas station to page my father with the message to come immediately to the hospital. I sat in the hospital waiting room and watched my father walk through on his way to find me. […] I walked along the shoulder of the road, waiting for my young self to appear, and I put a blanket around my thin child’s shoulders.”
Related Characters:
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Chapter 11
Quotes
“You were very lucky.”
He smiles, still shielding his face in his hands. “Well, we were and we weren’t. One minute we had everything we could dream of, and the next minute she was in pieces on the expressway.” Henry winces.
“But don’t you think,” I persist, “that it’s better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life?”
[…] “I’ve often wondered about that. Do you believe that?”
I think about my childhood, all the waiting, and wondering, and the joy of seeing Henry walking through the Meadow after now seeing him for weeks, months […] “Yes,” I say, “I do.”
Mr. DeTamble nods. “Henry has chosen well.”
Chapter 20
Quotes
As I sit beside Clare and read the poem I forgive Lucille, a little, for her colossal selfishness and her monstrous dying, and I look up at Clare. “It’s beautiful,” I say, and she nods, satisfied, for a moment, that her mother really did love her. I think about my mother singing lieder after lunch on a summer afternoon […] I never questioned her love. Lucille was changeable as wind. The poem Clare holds is evidence, immutable, undeniable, a snapshot of emotion.
Get the entire The Time Traveler’s Wife LitChart as a printable PDF.
Annette Lyn Robinson Quotes in The Time Traveler’s Wife
The The Time Traveler’s Wife quotes below are all either spoken by Annette Lyn Robinson or refer to Annette Lyn Robinson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
“My mother dying…it’s the pivotal thing…everything else goes around and around it…I dream about it, and I also—time travel to it. Over and over. […] if you had enough time to really look at everything, you would see me. I am in cars, behind bushes, on the bridge, in a tree. I have seen it from every angle, and I am even a participant in the aftermath: I call the airport from a nearby gas station to page my father with the message to come immediately to the hospital. I sat in the hospital waiting room and watched my father walk through on his way to find me. […] I walked along the shoulder of the road, waiting for my young self to appear, and I put a blanket around my thin child’s shoulders.”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11
Quotes
“You were very lucky.”
He smiles, still shielding his face in his hands. “Well, we were and we weren’t. One minute we had everything we could dream of, and the next minute she was in pieces on the expressway.” Henry winces.
“But don’t you think,” I persist, “that it’s better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life?”
[…] “I’ve often wondered about that. Do you believe that?”
I think about my childhood, all the waiting, and wondering, and the joy of seeing Henry walking through the Meadow after now seeing him for weeks, months […] “Yes,” I say, “I do.”
Mr. DeTamble nods. “Henry has chosen well.”
Chapter 20
Quotes
As I sit beside Clare and read the poem I forgive Lucille, a little, for her colossal selfishness and her monstrous dying, and I look up at Clare. “It’s beautiful,” I say, and she nods, satisfied, for a moment, that her mother really did love her. I think about my mother singing lieder after lunch on a summer afternoon […] I never questioned her love. Lucille was changeable as wind. The poem Clare holds is evidence, immutable, undeniable, a snapshot of emotion.
