Previous
Chapter 42
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Walk Two Moons, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Judgment, Perspective, and Storytelling
Parents, Children, and Growing Up
Grief
Nature
Summary
Analysis
The sheriff doesn’t take Sal to jail. Instead, he and the deputy drive Sal and Gramps’s truck to Coeur D’Alene, though he does lecture her about driving without a license. Then, Sal asks the sheriff about the accident. He’s not sure if he saw Momma or not, but he does remember meeting Dad. Sal asks if he saw Mrs. Cadaver, and the sheriff is shocked—everyone, he says, saw Mrs. Cadaver. As they were bringing stretcher after stretcher up the hill, Mrs. Cadaver’s hand waved from the window. Sal explains that Mrs. Cadaver sat next to Momma on the bus.
Finally, Sal and the sheriff reveal how Dad came to know Margaret Cadaver: she was the only person who survived the bus accident that killed Momma. Sal already knows at this point (Margaret told her after Phoebe’s mother came home), but now readers see that Sal’s presumptions about Margaret kept her from getting to know the one person who could connect her to Momma.
Themes
Sal tells the sheriff that Mrs. Cadaver and Momma were strangers when they got on the bus, but they were friends by the end. Momma told Mrs. Cadaver everything about Sal, Dad, the farm in Bybanks, and the singing tree. Sal figures that Momma must’ve missed her and Dad, since she told Mrs. Cadaver so much about them.
For Sal, it’s cathartic to share Mrs. Cadaver and Momma’s story with the sheriff. By essentially admitting that she was wrong about Mrs. Cadaver, Sal also comes to a more mature, nuanced understanding of Momma’s final days.
Themes
Then, Sal tells the sheriff that she learned all this on the day that Mrs. Winterbottom returned. Mrs. Cadaver told Sal about meeting Dad in the hospital. They talked for hours when he found out Mrs. Cadaver sat next to Momma. After that, they began writing to each other. When Sal asked if she was going to marry Dad, Mrs. Cadaver said it was early for that—Dad is just interested in her because she was with Momma at the end.
Sal could’ve gotten this information months ago, had she been ready to listen to Dad and Mrs. Cadaver explain how they met. But she wasn’t ready then—it’s only now, as she confronts that Momma is actually dead, that Sal is able to accept that Mrs. Cadaver doesn’t present a threat.
Themes
Even with all this, though, Sal admits she didn’t believe that Momma was actually dead. She figured there’d been a mistake. Sal isn’t sure of what she hoped to find in Lewiston—maybe she expected Momma herself.
Sal told herself that Momma wasn’t dead to protect herself from having to deal with her grief. But now that Sal has proven to herself that Momma is dead and isn’t coming back, she can begin to truly grieve—and ultimately move on.
Themes
Get the entire Walk Two Moons LitChart as a printable PDF.
Sal sleeps for the last half of the drive to Coeur D’Alene. She wakes up in the sheriff’s car outside the hospital, just as the sheriff is coming out of the hospital. The sheriff gives Sal an envelope. Inside is a note from Gramps explaining that Gram died early this morning. It lists his motel address. When Sal gets there, Gramps is on the phone, but he hangs up to hug Sal. The sheriff offers his condolences and says he’ll lecture Gramps for letting Sal drive alone another time. Then, the sheriff offers to help with arrangements. Gramps has already arranged for Gram’s body to fly back to Bybanks. He and Sal are going to finish up in Coeur D’Alene and drive home tomorrow.
Previously, Sal alluded to the fact that this day would be both the worst and the best. It turns out to be the worst day for Gramps and Sal because they’ve lost a beloved wife and grandmother, but at the same time, this day as allowed Sal to find closure about Momma’s death. Importantly, Sal doesn’t try to convince herself that Gram is still alive the way she did with Momma. Now that she’s made this journey to accept Momma’s death, it’s easier for her to accept that Gram is dead—and perhaps, that death is both “normal and terrible,” as Ben suggested earlier. It’s sad that Gram is gone, but losing a grandparent is, perhaps, simply a part of life.
Themes
Once the sheriff is gone, Sal notices her grandparents’ open suitcase. She picks up Gram’s baby powder and notices a crumpled letter on the desk. Gramps explains that it’s a love letter; he wrote it last night. Then, Gramps says he misses his gooseberry. He lies down and starts to say “it,” but he can’t. Sal helps him say that this isn’t his marriage bed, but it will do.
Gramps and Sal’s openness with each other as they grieve for Gram contrasts with how shut off Sal was from Dad after Momma died. Sal realizes now that it can be cathartic to connect with others and grieve communally.
Themes
