Jellicoe Road ends much the same way it begins, with a child saying goodbye to a parent. Just as Hannah watches her father die in the aftermath of the car crash, Taylor stays with her mother at the end of her life. The beginning of the book's final section even echoes its opening line—just as Hannah's father "took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die" (Prologue. 1), Tate "took seventeen years to die" (27.9). And both die "on the Jellicoe Road, the prettiest road I'd ever seen" (Prologue.1, 27.9).
Why seventeen years? Why not parallel the opening of Hannah's book and write it out in minutes? We think Taylor's trying to say that while Tate's physical life ended in the present, she began dying seventeen years before, when she lost Webb and her life began its downward spiral. Either way, the book ends with Taylor deliberately linking her loss to Hannah's—not only are both of them close to Tate in different ways, but they now both know the feeling of tragically losing a parent.
We're not finished with the parallels between the end and the beginning, though. In the prologue, the Schroeders are on their way to the ocean for a vacation. In the end, Taylor, Jude, Hannah, and Taylor's friends "finish a journey my father and Hannah began almost two decades ago" (27.15). They travel to the ocean together, and the book ends with Hannah, Taylor, and Jessa speculating about whether their lost loved ones are "all together someplace" (27.20). By finishing the trip, Taylor comes full circle with her newfound family, experiencing what Hannah's father promised she would when she reached the ocean.
Then there's the epilogue, where we get a glimpse into Webb's mind during the moments before his death. He sits in the tree with the cat and can "see Fitz coming his way, his gun balanced on his shoulders" (Epilogue.1). Closing his eyes, he thinks about the dream he had where he met his future daughter in the tree and remembers telling her his plans for building the house. And even though it's not included, we hurt a little inside because we know what happens next.
Let's think about this for a minute. Why have an epilogue at all? After all, the whole Jellicoe Road gang at the beach together is pretty powerful in an end of The Shawshank Redemption kind of way. We're not sure, but what's really incredible about the epilogue is that it lets Webb have the last word. We've seen his daughter go on a journey to discover her real identity, and we've seen the survivors reunite. The epilogue reminds us of the connection that existed between Webb and Taylor even before his death, leaving us with the hope and enthusiasm his character felt right up to the end.