One Perfect Day: How do the characters deal with conflict?

I just began reading One Perfect Day by Lauraine Snelling, so far I love how Snelling conveys the characters' emotion. One Perfect Day takes place in two households, the grieving house of Nora Peterson and the rejoicing house of Jenna Montgomery.

Nora Peterson and her husband Gordan have two twins, Christi and Charlie. As this is their last Christmas before Christi and Charlie leave for college, Nora wants it to be perfect. Jenna Montgomery and her daughter Heather, who is struggling with a heart defect, are praying for a donor and trying to forget that this could be their last Christmas. One event will change both families lives forever. *Spoilers* When Charlie dies in a car accident, Nora falls into a depression and can't figure out how to move on with her life.

Nora struggles the most outwardly to deal with her grief, while Gordan and Christi resume their normal schedule to try to move on. Nora avoid talking about anything that relates to Charlie, and refuses to enter his bedroom. After a few days Nora's friend Susan comes over to try to convince Nora to leave the house. Nora is reserved and considers ignoring Susan, she would rather sleep all day than live a normal life without Charlie. Nora agrees to go skiing with the condition that Susan "will not ask me any questions or make any comments." I think that Nora's actions show how caring a mother she is. Nora's unwilling to talk about Charlie's death because she doesn't know how to move on. As a mother, the last eighteen years of Nora's life have been focused on Charlie and Christi. Now that she only has Christi, who hardly talks to her anyway, Nora's unsure of what she's supposed to do. Nora questions if she's moving on to quickly and even feels guilty about how quickly the funeral took place.

In comparison, while we don't know Christi's thoughts, Christi tries to continue her life as normal. Christi and Nora begin fighting after a few days, when Nora tries to take down the Christmas tree. Nora believes that taking down the Christmas tree will make it easier for everyone to move on because they won't have to open presents and remember Christmas with Charlie. This clearly upsets Christi, she makes a point to tell Nora that "we haven't even opened our presents. I was hoping we could do that tonight." Yes, Christi is upset by Charlie's death and cries multiple times but she wants to be able to move on. This shows how strong Christi is, to be able to act normal when she's dealing with such a terrible loss takes strength. While Nora is sitting at home avoiding the thought of Charlie, Christi has to return to school.

I am looking forward to finishing this book, and can't wait to see if the two families ever meet each other. I would recommend this book to someone wanting a very emotional story that allows them to connect to the characters.