Two friends who read “Correspondence” wrote to say I’d made them cry. Not sure that’s something to be proud of! But this does make me proud, a reader who posted on the Full Grown People website   https://fullgrownpeople.com/ after reading the other essay, “Secret,”: Beth, I immediately picked up the phone and called my best friend since grade 2, after reading your beautiful essay. Our lives have diverged and I can’t remember the last time we saw each other, but the memories and bond we formed sixty years ago is unbreakable. Your friendship with Pen reminded me how important these ties are. Love your writing.

So glad to have helped effect a reunion.

Full steam ahead (steam – there’s a good word for a Wordle start) on the new book, the essay compilation. Put the title of the 41 mostly short essays on cards – blue for family, pink for neighbourhood, purple for personal, yellow for divorce, green for childhood. And spent two days rearranging – there are timeline issues, tone and structure issues, balancing light and dark, long and short. Perhaps there’s something that works. Now to go over and fix and rewrite and edit. A way to go.

Last night, Annie and I went to Ruth’s elegant home for dinner, sitting by the fire, then at her beautifully laid table, with conversation and laughter. I realized how long it has been since this enormous pleasure: dinner with friends. How much missed, how welcome to be there again. We talked about Wordle, which we all enjoy and have different methods to get through. And of course about the goings-on in Ottawa, what it all means for the future of this country. How horrifying that the American far right has adopted the convoy, and their hatred of Trudeau, as a cause for their vile rhetoric. 

Friday, to Anna’s for dinner with the boys and Holly. Watching Ben is a marvel; he is never still, jumping constantly on the furniture as he talks non-stop. He’s interested in everything. At one point, he solemnly told me New Brunswick had attacked Russia. Ah, I said, really? He’s an expert in lots of things, geography among them. Eli was for once being beaten at Monopoly by Holly. He mostly wins. He’s a strategist, very canny. Ben refuses to be photographed and hides when the phones come out. By moving quickly I got this shot, a rare pic of the elusive Ben bird. 

Friends of Anna’s were taking the red eye that night from Halifax to Hamilton, so, after returning at 6 from her workday, she’d arranged to walk through the bitter cold with the boys at 12.30 a.m. to pick up her carshare car, drive to Hamilton, pick up her friends, and bring them back to stay at her place, in her bed. She texted me at 3.30 a.m. that they were home safely. 

I’m in awe.