Caroline Bradshaw Timeline and Summary

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• Caroline is born the second of twin girls, though her life is in danger from the moment she takes her first, tortured breath.
• At two months old, Caroline is rushed to a hospital on the mainland where her mother visits daily to breastfeed her and nurse her back to health.
• When Caroline is 6, the family gets a piano and she begins playing tunes on it almost immediately.
• By the time Caroline is 10, everyone in town knows she has a gift for music, especially singing.
• Her teacher, Mr. Rice, insists that Caroline be given music lessons on the mainland. The Bradshaw family can't afford it, so the director of the music school agrees to take her on for free—that's how good she is.
• Caroline spends her teenage years at home with her mother, father, grandmother, and twin sister, Louise, who is always blowing things out of proportion.
• During Christmas of 1941, Caroline sings a breathtaking version of "I Wonder as I Wander" in the Christmas pageant.
• The next summer, Caroline has the brilliant idea to help the Captain by giving away Auntie Braxton's sickly cats. She makes friends with the Captain and Call in the process.
• One day, Caroline is using some lotion, and Louise freaks out about it. Caroline doesn't tell her parents that Louise threw a bottle at her and it smashed against the wall.
• Later, Caroline has the brilliant idea for the Captain to marry Auntie Braxton so he has a place to live. Two birds with one stone, right? Caroline visits the newlywed couple often to sing for them.
• Call stops hanging out as much, but she sees that he's becoming a man and fusses over him every week at church. Later, he leaves to join the Navy.
• The Captain generously offers to send Caroline to a music school in Baltimore—how exciting—so Caroline leaves for school in Baltimore and does well there.
• She is eventually accepted to the Julliard School.
• Once the war ends, Call comes to visit Caroline in New York and asks her to marry him. She says yes.
• Call and Caroline are married in December 1946.
• Caroline is doing well with her singing and is eventually cast in a production of La Bohème. Brava, Caroline.