In the past, Chika loved to choose her clothes each morning after brushing her teeth, matching the colors of the socks and the shirts. / But she doesn’t do that anymore. / Chika died last spring, when the trees in our yard were beginning to bud, as they are budding now, as it is spring again.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph N/A)

Importance: It is in this quote that Mitch informs his reader that Chika is dead. The Chika with whom he interacts in his office is a ghost or a spirit of the girl he tried to save.

And on your third day of life, January 12, a hot afternoon, you were sleeping on your mother’s chest when the world shook as if the dirt held thunder.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph N/A)

Importance: Albom tells a good deal of Chika’s story as he talks to her ghost. In this particular quote, he describes to her how a devastating earthquake occurred in Haiti...