Reviewed by Marissa Gallerani

When Merilyn Simonds and Beth Robinson began taking weekly walks amidst the COVID-19 lockdowns, it was not with the intention of making something. They have been merely seeking to take pleasure in one another’s firm safely throughout quarantine. The ensuing memoir, Strolling with Beth: Conversations with My 100 Yr Outdated Good friend, (Random Home Canada; Sept. 2025) is the unintentional product of their conferences.

Authored by Simonds, the e-book explains the character of the collaboration and the way Beth performed an integral half in shaping the narrative.

Strolling with Beth is split into three sections, every representing a yr and marked by their birthdays. These sections are then subdivided into smaller chapters. Whereas most focus on a stroll and the ensuing dialogue between the 2 ladies, not all of them do.

Well being points and bodily distance preserve the ladies aside. Regardless of this, they preserve communication (via letters, emails, and cellphone calls) and their missives present their deepening relationship. Every finds the opposite girl enriching their lives. Simonds provides Beth a few of her previous stamps for an artwork venture. Beth provides Simonds a huipil (a standard Mexican tunic) that she obtained years in the past. The purpose isn’t essentially what they accomplish, however their mutual alternate and the enjoyment they obtain from it.

The e-book is exclusive for 2 causes. First, for the truth that Simonds discovered a mentor and information in her later years the place she thought none existed. Already in her 70s, Simonds didn’t suppose she had a lot to look ahead to, or anybody who may present her a roadmap for her elder years. She had already surpassed the ages each her dad and mom and grandparents had lived to. That Beth was in a position to fill that function is the second motive for the e-book’s singularity: its detailed depiction of the interior lives and world of aged ladies — an age group not typically portrayed in literature. And when they’re, they’re painted because the grandmotherly sort: aspect characters, not the protagonists. Strolling with Beth facilities the lived expertise of this typically ignored demographic and reveals the reader that there’s nonetheless a lot knowledge to be gained from them.

Provided that Beth has lived via the Nice Melancholy, World Battle II, and far of the twentieth Century’s best upheavals, she is a perfect information. Beth labored in some capability till she was 99, and he or she works arduous to maintain each herself and her relationships wholesome, and her conversations with Simonds replicate that. They talk about their previous lives and relationships, their future hopes and fears, all interspersed with their inventive initiatives.

Whereas centenarians’ longevity is commonly celebrated, Beth’s just isn’t with out heartache: She has outlived two of her three kids and her husband. Throughout the pandemic, preexisting well being issues required her to look at strict quarantine measures, which severely remoted her. Simonds appreciated Beth for her knowledge, Beth appreciated Simonds for her firm.

In the end, Strolling with Beth complicates getting older narratives. Even at 103, Beth appears to be like forward to the longer term and isn’t targeted on her mortality. Additional, it isn’t misplaced on Simonds that, for a part of the e-book’s timeframe, Beth is in higher well being than she is. Whereas Simonds battles large cell arthritis, she nonetheless worries about Beth’s well being. “Ridiculous,” she notes at one level, that Beth “is ready on me, a girl 30 years her junior, although right now I really feel twice her age.”

This e-book displays the messy complexity of life: Whereas there may be some group to the narrative, there isn’t a tidy ending. Strolling with Beth is a testomony to the enduring nature of each feminine and intergenerational friendship.