Tear Jerker / Cheaper by the Dozen

• Dad's sudden death by heart attack in the last chapter, especially coming as it does after the hilarity of most of the book.
• The discussion in the last chapter of the change in Mother's character. Before Dad's death, she had many fears. But after Dad died, the children never saw her cry again...because her worst fear had already come to pass.
• Behind the scenes: the knowledge that there were never twelve children at one time, as Mary, the second Gilbreth child, died at age five. In the foreword to the sequel Belles on Their Toes, the adult Gilbreth children state that they always considered Mary part of the dozen so that she would never be forgotten, even though many of the children never even met her.

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