63 pages • 2 hours read
Mitch AlbomThe Time Keeper
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Epilogue, Chapter 80 Summary
When her mother calls to wish her a Happy New Year, the phone rings with the loud, annoying sound Ethan had reprogrammed so she could ignore her mom’s calls. The sound startles Sarah just enough so that she realizes what she is doing and gets out of the car and the garage. She makes it outside, where a neighbor calls 911. She is rushed to the hospital. As the clock strikes one, she is admitted to the ER.
Next to Sarah in the ER is Victor Delamonte, who has been admitted just moments earlier. He had stopped his dialysis and is given a blood transfusion. Victor had given Roger a directive earlier in the evening that if he changed his mind for any reason, he would signal it with a single word, “Grace.” When he heard Victor say it, Roger stopped everything and called an ambulance.
Epilogue, Chapter 81 Summary
This is a story about the meaning of time that begins long ago and continues years from now. In the future, in a crowded ballroom, Dr. Sarah Lemon will be celebrated for curing “the most dreaded disease of our time” (221), saving millions of lives. Sarah thanks her team, not taking all the credit herself, and introduces her mother. She also thanks Victor Delamonte who generously bequeathed her entire tuition costs to college and medical school in his last will and testament. He only lived three months beyond New Year’s Eve, but Grace remembered them as the sweetest months of their marriage.
At the same time, a new tenant is moving into where the clock shop was in lower Manhattan. As the construction crew knocks down the walls, they discover a cavernous space below the shop. On one of the walls are carvings and in the corner is an hourglass holding a single grain of sand. Far, far away, Dor and Alli run barefoot up a hillside, tossing stones and laughing with their children with no thought of time.
Epilogue Analysis
Chapters 80 and 81 are the resolution for all three of the main characters’ plot lines. Chapter 80 structures Sarah’s and Victor’s stories in parallel, each with a bolded statement setting them in the same hospital, next to one another, and foregrounding that each survives the events of the night. Both characters choose to embrace life and the relationship they have with their loved ones. Although Grace and Lorraine are physically absent in the climatic scenes for both characters, they intervene and change the course of each character, Lorraine with her phone call and “Grace” as Victor’s chosen code word to abort the procedure. This highlights the importance of human connection; in this case, it is literally lifesaving.
Chapter 81 provides the final conclusion to each plot line as Victor finally does embrace his own mortality and dies, demonstrating Acceptance of One’s Mortality. He also cherishes each of his final days with Grace and makes a lasting impact on Sarah, embodying Dor’s final lesson that mortality makes each day more precious. Sarah also learns about The Need to Live in the Present and improves the relationship she has with her mother so that years later she includes her when she is receiving recognition for her achievements.
The final description of the cavern, the hourglass, and Dor and his family enjoying an endless moment of time relate to the theme of Humans’ Relationship with Time. Although Dor was allowed to finish his mortal existence, he also still exists as Father Time, and human beings still orient themselves with timekeeping.
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By Mitch Albom
