Easter Sunday, April 5

Easter Sunday, April 5, is both the anniversary of Eleanor Markey’s death at A Street Bridge and a day when Violet Markey’s family returns to the site. The visit brings grief into the present through a familiar license plate, a small garden planted by Theodore Finch, and a song that lets Violet remember her sister aloud.

The Anniversary Visit

On April 5, Violet and her parents drive to A Street Bridge and climb down to the dried-up riverbed where Eleanor was killed. They bring flowers to lay at the place where she died. Embedded in the ground, a license plate suddenly looks familiar to Violet; around it, someone has planted a small garden. She recognizes the planting as Theodore Finch’s, evidence that he had come to the site.

A Year After Eleanor’s Death

The discovery leaves Violet cold, and the damp air is not the only reason. A year has passed, and standing there with her parents makes the distance between Eleanor’s death and the family’s present life tangible. Her parents say little at the site. On the drive home, Violet wonders when Theodore Finch found the license plate and when he returned to plant the flowers.

Remembering Through Song

Violet waits for her parents to ask about the garden or speak Eleanor’s name, but they do not. She breaks the silence by recalling that she had suggested seeing Boy Parade during spring break. Eleanor had taken the plan further, proposing that they follow the band across the Midwest. Violet connects that appetite for turning an idea into something larger with Theodore Finch, bringing the two people she has lost into the same thought without equating them.

She then begins singing her favorite Boy Parade song, the one that most reminds her of Eleanor. Her mother looks toward her father, whose eyes remain fixed on the road, and then joins in. The date does not undo the loss; instead, the family’s shared song gives their remembrance a form that words at the bridge did not.