Part 2, p. 18 - 48 Summary

The following Easter, David and Harriet host the first of many family parties established to celebrate special occasions. They enjoy the house full of family, sisters and brothers-in-law and their children, all the while keeping a secret - that they are again pregnant. When they reveal the news after everyone has left, Dorothy offers to come and help out whenever she can. David and Harriet gratefully accept, and a few months later, Helen is born. The parties continue, albeit with occasional undercurrents of discontent - Harriet's sister Sarah is in an unhappy marriage. Meanwhile, David and Harriet's third child, Jane, is born in 1970, and even though it's a struggle in many ways, David and Harriet remain grateful for what their life has become (see "Quotes", p. 21).

Shortly after the birth of the fourth child, Paul (in 1973), Harriet's and David's...