Grandpa Gus Stewart: The Heart That Anchors Delilah's Story

Character Overview

Grandpa Gus Stewart is the emotional cornerstone of B.K. Borison's And Now, Back to You. He is Delilah Stewart's grandfather and primary caregiver throughout her childhood, a retired dockworker whose Alzheimer's diagnosis shapes the novel's most poignant stakes. Though he appears in only a handful of scenes, his presence reverberates through every choice Delilah makes—most critically, her refusal to leave YBAL News for a better job because his fading mind still recognizes her face on television.

Gus is not a prop or a plot device. Borison renders him with specificity: the lemon drops in his pocket, the cobbled-together nursery rhymes he once sang, the stick-figure drawings he tucked into Delilah's lunch box, the way he called the satellite towers outside her bedroom window "wishes on a string—that's where the stars live when they come down here for a bit." These details build a man whose love was steady, physical, and inventive long before his illness demanded anything from Delilah in return.

Plot Role

Gus operates as both a catalyst and a constraint in the narrative. His Alzheimer's episodes—the phone calls where he slips into the past and believes Delilah is still a schoolgirl—pull her out of the present at crucial moments. The most significant occurs in Chapter 29, when a nurse calls to report that Gus has fallen and hit his head. Delilah abandons the snowstorm assignment in Western Maryland, and Jackson rearranges schedules, packs their bags, and drives her through dangerous conditions to the University of Maryland Medical Center.

This crisis is the turning point in Delilah and Jackson's relationship. Forced proximity and caretaking strip away their antagonism. Jackson's steady, unwavering competence during the drive—"Let me take care of you. Okay?"—and his refusal to leave the hospital entrance until he sees her safely inside demonstrate a commitment that words alone could not convey. Gus's accident becomes the crucible in which Jackson proves he is not just a rigid, order-obsessed weatherman but a partner Delilah can rely on.

Later, in Chapter 32, Gus is the explicit reason Delilah turns down Maggie's job offer at the radio station. She explains that her grandfather set his life around the morning and evening news. Even on his worst days, when everyone is a stranger, he knows Delilah Stewart, his favorite meteorologist. This revelation reframes her entire career—what looked like career stagnation was actually a profound act of devotion.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Gus's defining trait is his enduring love for Delilah, which Borison demonstrates almost entirely through remembered action rather than present-tense capability. The evidence points to a man who parented with creativity and presence: he drew stick figures in lunch boxes so she could "hold him in her heart" at school. He invented nonsense nursery rhymes and told her the satellite towers were stars visiting earth. He kept lemon drops in his pockets and used a specific laundry detergent that Delilah still associates with safety.

His present-day moments of lucidity reveal pride, self-awareness, and a painful recognition of his own decline. In the hospital, he quips about his accident: "Breaking news. Old man slips in his favorite slippers. Knocks himself out on a nightstand." He then says, "I've really put you through the wringer, haven't I?" and later admits, "I've been doing that a lot lately. Worrying you." These lines show a man who has not lost his humor or his capacity for guilt—he knows exactly what his illness costs Delilah.

The evidence also suggests a man of routine. Delilah references lemon cookies, tea, and General Hospital as rituals that make his Alzheimer's more manageable. Routines, the doctors have told her, are essential. This need for predictability creates an interesting narrative parallel with Jackson, whose entire personality is built around order and control.

Chronological Arc

Borison reveals Gus through memory, present crisis, and resolution:

The Past: Gus raised Delilah after her parents' absence (the exact circumstances are implied but not extensively detailed in the supplied evidence). He worked the docks. He attended baseball games at Camden Yards with a "wide and toothy smile." He walked her to kindergarten, where she cried every day, and he cried too—his dockworker friends teased him for it.

The Present Crisis: The novel's timeline spans a period in which Gus's episodes are "slowly getting worse." The phone call in the radio station—where he confuses the current moment for decades ago and scolds teenage Delilah for coming home late—is a gut-punch Borison describes as hitting "every time" no matter how often it happens. His fall and hospitalization force Delilah's hand, revealing how precarious her life has become and how deeply Jackson has already embedded himself in it.

The Epilogue Resolution: The final chapter places Gus in a state of gentle decline. His memory is fading, but his days are "filled with laughter." The family plans to spend the afternoon with him at Skullduggery. This ending refuses both a miracle cure and a tragedy. Borison opts instead for a bittersweet truth: Gus is still present, still loved, still part of Delilah's daily life even as he slips further away.

Relationships

With Delilah: Gus is the central attachment figure of Delilah's life. The supplied evidence leaves no room for doubt—he is her person. She calls him immediately when she's anxious. She builds her career around his ability to recognize her. In the hospital, she cries "ugly, heart-wrenching sobs" into his shoulder, and he calls her "my sunshine girl." The nickname itself is telling: she is the light in his life, just as he has been the steady ground in hers. Their relationship is now inverting as she becomes the caregiver, and Borison handles this shift without sentimentality.

With Jackson: Gus and Jackson do not share a scene in the supplied evidence beyond Gus's astute observation from the hospital bed: he watches every broadcast and wants to know why Delilah is kissing "that weather boy" and wearing his sweater. This single moment establishes Gus's protectiveness and his sharpness—even with a bandaged head, he notices. It also positions him as an approving witness to the central romance.

With Anita: Though Anita is mentioned only in passing, she appears to be Gus's caregiver or neighbor—the one who calls Delilah when Gus falls. Gus affectionately dismisses her as "prone to hysterics," suggesting a long-standing, fond relationship.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Gus's most consequential decision is one he made decades before the novel begins: he chose to raise Delilah, to show up for kindergarten drop-offs and pack lunch box drawings, to build a love so foundational that Delilah would later sacrifice career advancement to preserve their remaining connection.

Delilah's decision to stay at YBAL—directly because of Gus—is the axis on which the plot turns. Without that choice, the partnership with Jackson might never have deepened, and her confrontation with Keith might never have happened. Gus's illness, paradoxically, keeps her in the place where she ultimately reclaims her agency.

His fall also forces Delilah to accept help. She cannot drive herself through a snowstorm. She must let Jackson handle the logistics. This surrender is necessary for her character growth, and Gus's vulnerability is the catalyst.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Gus embodies the novel's caregiving and found-family theme. Delilah's care for him is not portrayed as a burden she resents but as a commitment she has integrated into every major life decision. When Jackson joins her in that care—driving through the storm, waiting at the hospital—he proves he belongs in her family.

Gus's Alzheimer's also connects to the theme of fate and meaningful coincidence. In Jackson's Chapter 40 monologue, he reinterprets "And now, back to you" as the universe repeatedly returning him to Delilah. But Gus represents a different kind of fate: the stubborn, deliberate choice to keep someone close. Delilah stays on television not because a cosmic force compels her but because she refuses to let the disease take the last thing Gus can hold onto.

Perhaps most subtly, Gus's decline mirrors the emotional vulnerability as strength theme. Both Gus and Jackson struggle with vulnerability—Gus in accepting his dependence, Jackson in expressing his feelings. Gus's hospital-room confession that he hates making Delilah worry is a late-life moment of emotional honesty that echoes Jackson's eventual declaration: "I can love you in the mountains and I can love you back home."

Distinguishing Interpretation from Explicit Fact

Several points in this analysis represent interpretation rather than explicit textual fact. The evidence does not specify how long Gus raised Delilah or what happened to her parents—only that he functioned as her primary caregiver. The epilogue reference to "days filled with laughter" could indicate either genuine contentment or Delilah's optimistic framing. Gus's relationship with Anita is inferred from a single mention of her phone call.

These interpretations are rooted in the textual evidence but extend beyond what Borison explicitly states. Readers should weigh them against their own reading of the novel.

Frequently Asked Questions about Grandpa Gus Stewart

1. What illness does Grandpa Gus have, and how does it affect Delilah?

Grandpa Gus has Alzheimer's disease, diagnosed about a year before the novel's main events. The illness manifests as episodes of confusion and time loss—he sometimes believes Delilah is still a teenager and scolds her for being late from school. The doctors tell Delilah the condition will keep progressing until "eventually he won't remember much at all." His illness affects Delilah emotionally (each episode "feels like a punch to the gut") and professionally: she turns down a lucrative radio job because Gus still recognizes her as the meteorologist on YBAL, the station he has watched for three decades. That recognition survives even on days when he does not remember who she is.

2. What is the significance of the hospital scene with Grandpa Gus?

The hospital scene in Chapter 29 serves three narrative purposes. First, it raises the stakes of Gus's illness—the "a lot of blood" call forces Delilah to confront how quickly she could lose him. Second, it reveals the depth of Jackson's commitment when he drives her through a snowstorm and refuses to leave until she is safely inside. Third, it provides a rare lucid conversation in which Gus acknowledges the toll his condition takes: "I don't want it to be like this for you. Rushing away from work. Crying." He also immediately notices Jackson's sweater on Delilah, signaling his continued sharpness and his protective interest in her romantic life.

3. How did Grandpa Gus shape Delilah's childhood?

Gus raised Delilah with warmth and creativity. He drew stick-figure pictures for her lunch box and told her she could "hold him in her heart" to ease kindergarten separation anxiety. He invented nonsensical nursery rhymes and sat with her staring at satellite towers, calling them "wishes on a string." He smelled like lemon drops and a specific laundry detergent. He cried at kindergarten drop-off, and the dockworkers teased him for it. When Delilah reflects on her childhood, the imagery is consistently about safety, presence, and a love expressed through small daily gestures—the same kind of love she ultimately finds with Jackson.

4. What does Gus represent in Delilah's career decisions?

Gus represents the reason Delilah cannot leave television news for radio, even when a better offer arrives. She explains to Maggie that Gus has structured his life around YBAL's broadcasts for decades. In his Alzheimer's fog, he may not know her as his granddaughter, but he knows Delilah Stewart the meteorologist. The face on screen remains familiar when everything else dissolves. Delilah's career loyalty is not a lack of ambition but a quiet, stubborn act of love—she is preserving the one connection the disease cannot easily sever. This revelation recontextualizes every demeaning turtle-suit segment she endures.

5. What happens to Grandpa Gus at the end of the novel?

The Epilogue establishes that Gus is still present in Delilah's life but in a state of gentle decline. His memory is fading, yet his days are "filled with laughter." The family—Delilah, Jackson, and the twins—plans to spend an afternoon with him at Skullduggery, a local pastry shop. The novel does not offer a cure or a tragic death. Instead, Borison closes on a note of integrated life: Gus is part of the family's routine, his presence a source of joy even as his mind slips further away. Jackson's final affirmation—that he got everything he wanted, which includes Delilah and by extension her grandfather—confirms that Gus is folded into their shared future.

For a deeper understanding of how Gus's storyline connects to the novel's broader themes, explore our analysis of caregiving and found family and the ending explained.