In Episode 36, the Wednesday morning bee’s membership increases, and Bess wonders if it’s time for a new beginning.
We’re getting very close to the end here … or at least the end of the first book in what I hope will be a series. As is the case with many endings, new beginnings are on the horizon, and I think this is especially true for Bess. She has grieved her husband, Bill, long and well. But I think she’s finally gotten to a place of acceptance — Bill really isn’t coming back. Bess has always known this, but you can know something rationally and not really believe it deep down.
In some way, Bess’s story in Friendship Album, 1933, is about secondary losses. She’s not only lost her husband, but she’s lost financial security, her identity as a wife, and the dreams she and Bill shared about their future after Bill retired. Slowly but surely over the course of the story Bess has dealt with most of these issues, but I think the hardest one is the loss of her identity as Bill’s wife. Her friendships with Dorothy and Joe have helped her a lot with this, but interestingly, it’s Edwina and Emmeline who get her over the final hump.
We all get by with a little help from our friends, don’t we?
