Accident – Danielle Steel

Oliver Watson’s world suddenly dissolves around  him when Sarah his wife of eighteen years, returns  to Harvard to get her master’s degree. Oliver is  left on his own, with three children and a freedom  he never wanted and doesn’t completely understand.  His family’s needs and demands suddenly consume  his life.

When Oliver’s mother is  diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s disease and dies soon  thereafter, Oliver’s father’s life is changed as  well. Braver than his son with less of a future  before him, George Watson, at seventy-two, quickly  embraces new relationships and, eventually, a new  life. The sudden changes come as a shock to both  father and son.

Ben, Oliver’s oldest  son, rejects his father and reaches outward, under  the illusion that he is grown-up and can make it  on his own. Melissa, the middle child, blames  Oliver for her mother’s desertion. And Sam, the  “baby,” is too shaken to deal with it at all.  Now the only parent, Daddy  must somehow cope this, his troubled family and  explore a world of new responsibilities, new women,  and new experiences.

Each of the three  men must start a new life: Oliver in New York and  then in Los Angeles with his children; once he  faces the biggest change in his life; his widowed  father with the woman next door; and  seventeen-year-old Ben with his girlfriend and baby. Nothing is  as it was before… nothing is as they once  thought it would be. But in the end, different is  better… different is more… for each of them —  and especially for “Daddy”.