by
Reuben Gurewitz, a retired Ottawa physician, continues to grieve the death of his wife Ruthie as a result of a tragic accident five years previously. He resolves that he must restrain his constant ruminations and accept her death, feels the need to get away, and decides to re-visit Belleville, the central Ontario City where he was born and bred. There, Reuben finds his once-vibrant Jewish community in decline. Fraught with gloom, he suddenly remembers Laura, his cherished friend of early years. He searches, finds her, and they unite in a twilight-years romance full of promise.
When the eighty-three year old physician, Reuben Gurewitz, awoke that August morning of 2016, he knew full well there had been no change in the conditions that oppressed the citizenry of metropolitan Ottawa. Outside the window of his ground-floor bedroom, just as the weatherman had predicted, the sky was cloudless with no possibility of rain. 'Just more searing temeratures, Reuben. It's been nothing but heat waves since early May. And Reuben, these constant winds . . .' So here was Ruthie again, eh, speaking from the grave. Was he still grief-stricken for her even after these five long years? How was it possible that he could still hear her husky voice so distinctly?
