Here One Moment

Eve reads online that someone (Allegra’s mother) posted on the social media account that the Death Lady might be an insurance actuary. Knowing Cherry’s first name, Eve googles “Cherry Actuary” and finds Cherry Lockwood immediately.

Ned Lockwood, a divorced high school math teacher, studied math at university with Cherry. He called her “Kronecker delta girl” because she once handed him a pen absent-mindedly during a lecture on the topic (424). Cherry recalls how Ned was so high-energy he couldn’t even sit through a movie, but Cherry loved him and they married. He gave her a brooch inscribed with the Kronecker delta symbol on their first wedding anniversary.

Sue’s illness was just a virus. She and Max take up salsa dancing because Max believes he’d regret never having done it if he lost Sue. She considers how lucky she is and decides to “cherish each moment she’s allocated until there are no more” (433).