Rona Maynard

Walking with Beth: Conversations with My 100-Year-Old Friend by Merilyn Simonds

I’m a strong believer in finding the books that speak to us even when we are not looking for them. Many of us have experienced this bit of magic and all of us can benefit from another reader’s experience. I’ve asked bookish folks from all over to weigh in on a special book that found them at exactly the right moment. These “micro-interviews” take only a minute to read but may lead you to a book that you or someone you know can use right now.

Look for a new voice and a new book to arrive in your inbox every other week between the regular editions of Spark. If you missed any, you can check them all out here: The Right Book at the Right Time.

Rona Maynard discovers Merilyn Simonds and Beth

Rona Maynard is the author of Starter Dog and My Mother’s Daughter. She is also the publisher of Amazement Seeker where her essays often put the exact feelings or events I’m struggling with into beautiful, precise, often funny, always wise prose.

What book found you when you needed it most?

Walking with Beth: Conversations with My 100-Year-Old Friend by Merilyn Simonds.

When and how did it find you (or how did you find it)?

Another memoirist recommended this book at the ideal moment. Just turned 76, closer to 80 than seemed possible, I was grappling with a fresh wave of age-related aches and hungry for inspiration to see me through the years ahead.

Why it mattered

Aging and friendship, two topics close to my heart, meet in this radiantly frank account of two spirited women growing side by side in the years associated with death and diminution. Merilyn, who’s exactly my age, meets her vibrant centenarian friend while seeking rich terrain to explore in her writing (you and me both, sister). She sees Beth as her “last guide to the future.”

A writer and artist, Beth draws endless nourishment from creativity. She delights in process, not results — to the point that on finishing a collage, she snaps a photo, dismantles the piece and recycles the supplies. I learned plenty from Beth alongside Merilyn. Having lost two adult children, she understands the necessary art of honoring your dead while cultivating joy, moment by moment. Both women struggle with physical limitations–Beth with the aftereffects of shingles, Merilyn with a debilitating chronic illness and the cruel side effects of its treatment. What’s it like to lose your hair, your ability to read and the shape of your body with shocking speed? Merilyn tells me the truth. Yet here she is, with a story that proves a sense of purpose is forever.

Would you read it again? Absolutely. I read a library copy but this book is a talisman. My annotated copy will sit beside Diana Athill’s Somewhere Towards the End.

A bit more about Rona

Rona Maynard is the author of two memoirs, Starter Dog and My Mother’s Daughter. Raised by an ambitious literary mother and nationally published since her teens, Rona did her best to dodge the family business. Her long career in the magazine industry culminated in a decade at the helm of Canada’s premier women’s title, Chatelaine. At 70 she embraced writing as her destiny. Rona’s bestselling newsletter, Amazement Seeker, chronicles her quest for discovery in everyday beauty as it flies. You can find her on Facebook, website, and you can read her Substack by clicking below:

What about you?

Is there a book that helped or is helping you find your way through a new chapter in your life? Have you read this book yourself? Share your thoughts with us!

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