The Love of My Afterlife

Remington Leopold Cooper, who goes by “Cooper” for most of the novel, is Delphie’s downstairs neighbor and one of her love interests. Cooper grew up in North London with his parents, Amy and Malcolm, and his twin sister Merritt, whom everyone in the family called “M.” His family had considered Cooper a happy and charming person, just as he seemed to Delphie when he first moved into the building. Cooper loved to write and was a successful crime novelist under the name R. L. Cooper; his writing earned him fame in literary communities. 

However, everything changed when M died five years before the beginning of the novel. Cooper and M had been inseparable best friends, and after M’s death, Cooper became cold and closed off from the world, lost to his grief. On the morning she died, he played music loudly to distract himself, and he didn’t notice when he was rude to Delphie, who politely asked him to turn the music down. (This misunderstanding marked the beginning of their contentious relationship.) Though his family often suggested therapy, Cooper dealt with his grief in private. Delphie started to view him as a womanizer due to all the women she saw coming out of his apartment at all hours of the night, yet Cooper would later explain that this was just his way of coping with loneliness. He never dated seriously, despite his pushy parents’ attempts to set him up with someone. He also stopped writing, feeling that creating new stories was impossible in a world without his sister. Cooper eventually picked up a computer programming job that let him stay at home and avoid others. He never laughed or smiled, and he never talked about M, unable to show the severity of his grief to others. 

Yet much like Delphie, Cooper changes drastically throughout the novel. Once he begins a transactional relationship with Delphie, the contention between the two begins to dissipate in the wake of their new mutual appreciation for one another. The more time they spend together, the more Cooper falls in love with Delphie. His parents notice that Delphie is the first person to make Cooper laugh since M’s death, and his mother tells Delphie that Cooper must be in love with her. Though Cooper is still cynical and curmudgeonly, his relationship with Delphie brings out much of his old self, as does his visit to Evermore. While he is happy to see his sister in Evermore, he still pines for his life and his burgeoning relationship with Delphie, having learned how profoundly having a partner could change his life. When he is eventually returned to Earth, Cooper is ready to begin life anew with Delphie.

Before her untimely death, Merritt “M” Cooper lived in North London with her family, including her twin brother and best friend, Cooper. Her family describes her as the life of the party, and she had many friends. She enjoyed reading romance novels, and she also read all of Cooper’s novels and made notes, helping him to humanize the characters. When she was 28 years old, Merritt died suddenly from a blood clot in her lung after a long-distance flight. 

After her death, Merritt becomes an Afterlife Therapist in Evermore. As one of the youngest and least experienced therapists, Merritt is full of ideas on how to change things and make the afterlife better. She makes her waiting room look like the laundromat she used to hide in as a child, believing that no one could be afraid of a laundromat, and she begins piloting a dating service for dead people. Many of her co-workers believe she is eccentric and begin stealing her clients. Merritt carries her love for romance into the afterlife and has a collection of novels that she offers to let her clients borrow. 

When Delphie arrives in Evermore, Merritt sees that the protagonist has been wasting her life, so she takes pity on her. Under the guise of fulfilling a love story and having some entertainment, she sends Delphie back to Earth to discover what life is really about. Merritt also experiences her own romance with a co-worker named Eric, whom she thought was trying to get her fired but was really just attracted to her. When Merritt meets with her brother again in Evermore, she wants to spend time with him but knows just how much he wants and deserves to live. She and Eric convince their bosses to send Cooper back to Earth, where she finally explains her true motivations to Delphie. Delphie often portrays Merritt as a frantic and irritating person, but Merritt is one of the few people who truly understands the importance of living a full and meaningful life.

Jonah Truman is a model and a dancer who briefly visits Evermore as an “unconscious visitor” when he is sedated during dental surgery. Merritt pulls a heavily drugged Jonah to Evermore to create the impression that he is interested in Delphie, thereby giving the protagonist the motivation to stop wasting her life. Everything that Delphie learns about Jonah makes him seem like a conventionally perfect partner, from his job as a model to his volunteer work with a children’s hospital. However, Jonah is a largely symbolic character who represents everything that Delphie thinks she wants. She pursues Jonah for most of the novel without questioning her feelings for him, led by Merritt to believe that she and Jonah are soulmates. However, in her pursuit of Jonah, Delphie begins to step out of her comfort zone and recognize what truly matters to her in life. By the time Jonah finally kisses Delphie and helps her fulfill her contract with Merritt, Delphie has already decided what is most important to her. Ironically, Jonah begins to feel a connection to her just as Delphie recognizes her own attraction to Cooper, and her rejection of Jonah indicates just how much she has changed.