Seeing August
- Via explains how she really never saw August the way other people see him until she went to live with her Grans for a month. She has the best time ever during her stay, since Grans is a lot of fun—and she gets to live a completely un-stared at life while she is there.
- Those weeks away give her just enough distance that when she sees Auggie again, she has a "tiny fraction of a moment" (2.Seeing August.4) where she sees her brother the way others do.
- She describes the experience as having given her a little peephole between the two Augusts: "the one I saw blindly, and the one other people saw" (2.Seeing August.6).
- Via is able to share this uncomfortable thought with her Grans, whom she loves with all her heart, and who loves Via "more than anyone else in the world" (2.Seeing August.10).
- Grans knows that Auggie has lots of people who love him and care for him—and she understands instinctively that Via needs someone to whom she can be the most special, most cherished, most loved.
- It is heartbreaking for Via (and for Via's mom) when her Grans dies unexpectedly of a heart attack shortly after their month-long stay together.