So the truth was he was dying… By the beginning of September the dirt would be piled over what was left of him out at the cemetery three miles east of town. Someone would cut his name into the face of a tombstone and it would be as if he never was.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1)

Importance: At the very start of the novel, Dad receives his diagnosis of terminal cancer. This becomes the catalyst for the course of the novel. As Dad dies, the lives of those who love him and come to see him as he dies are also explored.

You forget after a while.
-- Willa (Chapter 8)

Importance: Here, Willa speaks to her daughter, Alene, about lost love. For Willa, lost love means losing the man she shared life with as his wife. For Alene, it meant losing the principal with whom she was having an affair. Willa tells Alene that she will yet have another...