Edwina’s Journey from Loss to Release

Edwina’s life moves from the sudden destruction of her first family through years of accumulated grief and blame toward a fragile decision to reconnect with her surviving daughter.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

A Young Artist’s New Home

A House Made Together Love and beginnings At art college, Edwina falls in love with Ollie Treadaway, a young artist whose energy and warmth seem to promise a life of shared possibility. Their marriage comes quickly, as does the discovery that Edwina is pregnant. Building a family They take possession of 137 Kennington Road, a damaged Georgian house that they begin to repair and colour together. Edwina enters the house as a young bride and artist, imagining that its rooms will hold a long future for the family they are about to create. The house becomes more than property: its rooms and objects gather the memories of Edwina’s changing identities. This hopeful beginning gives the later story its measure of loss, because so much of what she builds there will eventually be taken from her.

Widowhood and Survival

A Life Without Ollie Sudden bereavement During a family holiday at Sennen Cove, Ollie collapses and dies while the children are still young. Edwina is left with Rowena and Charlie, a large house, and no clear way to manage the future. Learning to continue Grief overwhelms her, and there are days when she cannot imagine surviving or caring for the children. Her mother’s efforts to make her “brave” do little to ease the shock; the practical demands of widowhood arrive before she is ready for them. Alicia’s help becomes essential. By sharing the work of caring for the twins, she gives Edwina enough support to keep the family together and resume her illustration career. Survival is not a clean recovery, but a difficult life rebuilt through work, care, and another person’s steady presence.

A Second Marriage and Its Costs

A Complicated Household Choosing companionship Loneliness leads Edwina into an affair with Dickie, who is still married to Barbara. Their relationship eventually becomes a marriage, bringing Lucas into the Kennington household as Edwina’s stepson. A family under strain Edwina tries to accommodate Lucas but cannot make him feel at home, while he resents the new household and the division of his father’s attention. Meanwhile, Rowena’s eating disorder emerges, and Edwina struggles to understand its severity as the family’s emotional life grows more complicated. The marriage offers Edwina companionship and stability, but it cannot erase the tension formed by the divorce, divided loyalties, and the children’s unequal needs. In retrospect, she recognizes that good intentions did not protect the household from harm or help her see every child clearly.

Grief Turns Into Estrangement

The Loss of Charlie A son in crisis After Charlie is implicated in Elise Landreth’s death, Edwina watches him face investigation, trial, and imprisonment. His conviction becomes another dividing line in the family, intensifying the grief and fear she has already carried for years. Hope and another rupture When Charlie is released, Edwina continues to hope that he can rebuild his life. His addiction and repeated failures frustrate that hope, and the later theft from the house—during which Alicia is badly injured—finally convinces Edwina that she can no longer trust him. Charlie dies in Thailand after a relapse. Edwina’s grief is so consuming that she blames Rowena for leaving him there, and mother and daughter become estranged. In her mourning, Edwina turns blame into a way of avoiding the unbearable fact that Charlie’s final choices were his own.

A Return to the Future

Choosing to Move Forward Facing what remains In old age, Edwina decides to sell 137 Kennington Road because the decaying house has become physically difficult to manage and emotionally impossible to inhabit. While preparing to leave, she revisits its rooms and the memories attached to them. Reopening a family bond Lucas returns her long-missing jewellery box and admits that he arranged the burglary years earlier. His confession cannot restore Charlie or undo the harm, but it allows Edwina to see the past with greater complexity and to release some of the blame she has carried. Edwina then turns toward Rowena, whose letters have gone unanswered for years. She prepares to travel to Australia, carrying the family keepsakes and the possibility of reconciliation. Her future remains uncertain, but for the first time in a long while she is willing to move toward it.

1957–1959, after Edwina meets Ollie Treadaway

1960s, after Ollie dies at Sennen Cove

1970s, from Edwina’s affair with Dickie through the family crises

1981–1990, from Charlie’s conviction to his death

2015, after Lucas returns the stolen keepsakes