Merilyn Simonds's Walking with Beth allows us to eavesdrop on two women, one already a centenarian, talking frankly about what scares us all: growing old. It's a book with a unique take on longevity, full of wisdom, tenderness, joy and the passions that sustain a very long life.
In the spring of 2021, Merilyn Simonds asked her friend Beth Robinson if she’d like to go for a walk. Simonds had just turned 70, still active, still writing, but entering what struck her as a mysterious, even frightening stage of life. Beth, a smart, vibrant woman who’d held a job until she was 99, lived on her own and was as awake to the world as a person half her age. Who better to ask what might come next?
During three years of weekly walks, the conversation between the two women only deepened, as they opened up about their heart-felt passions, the lingering influence of their pasts, and their hopes and fears for the future.
In Walking with Beth, Simonds shares these intimate exchanges, delving into corners of older women’s lives that are rarely seen or spoken about so openly. As Simonds looks forward into a future that seems unknowable, Beth looks back, offering her experience in surviving the later-life blows that batter us all, and more importantly, her wisdom about how to enrich every passing day.
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Walking with Beth: Conversations with My Hundred-Year-Old Friend
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Walking with Beth: Conversations with My Hundred-Year-Old Friend
"An enjoyable read from this writer. She writes in such a way that you know her life and her friend whom she deeply cares for. So many thoughts and concerns through both their lives that parallel everyone. In such a positive light."
— S. S. (5/5)
Loved this story!
"Great story about friendship, life and acceptance."
— Sandra (5/5)
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Published date: Sep 23, 2025
Language: English
No. of Pages: 272
Publisher: Random House Of Canada
ISBN: 9781039013346
Dimensions:
5.71" W x
0.91" L x
8.52" H
PRAISE FOR WALKING WITH BETH: "A delight to read.… Walking with Beth is not a swan song, but in its lively, crystalline prose and acute psychological vision, it’s the unmistakable product of a writer who has spent decades honing her gifts. While it will especially appeal to those navigating or approaching old age, the pleasures it offers—namely, acquainting oneself with two remarkable people as they grapple with some of life’s fundamental challenges—can be relished by any lover of good books.” —The Literary Review of Canada
"Merilyn Simonds’s gentle, lyrical prose is like a whispered invitation into the most intimate of friendships—that between women of one generation and the next. Each remarkable in her own right, these two women fearlessly, yet tenderly, broach the satisfactions, fears, joys and even humour of aging. A wonderful contemplation." —Michelle Good, author of Five Little Indians
“Walking with Beth is a treasure chest of a book—the pages brim with glittering details, memories, and contemplations about the bond between two extraordinary ‘soul-friends.’ Simonds explores aging, connection, and the power of family and community with a poetic grace that is unparalleled in this moving meditation on a friendship between two remarkable and unforgettable women.” —Suzette Mayr, Giller Prize–winning author of The Sleeping Car Porter
“[Merilyn’s] writing is exquisite. Writers and oral storytellers alike will relate to her description of the human need for narrative.” —Alberta Views “The book shares rarely told stories of older women's lives, and offers valuable insights on how to sustain a long and meaningful life.” —CBC Books, “13 Books to Make You Feel Hopeful”
MERILYN SIMONDS is author of twenty books, most recently Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay, an innovative memoir/biography of Lawrence, an extraordinary self-trained ornithologist who became one of Canada’s greatest naturalists. Born in Winnipeg, Simonds grew up in small-town Ontario and Brazil. She published her first book in 1979 at the age of 29, and since then her work has been anthologized and published internationally in eight countries. She writes in a wide variety of genres—personal essay, memoir, travel, literary fiction (such as the novel The Holding, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice) and creative nonfiction, including The Convict Lover, which was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-fiction. In 2017, Project Bookmark Canada installed a plaque on the site of the former Kingston Penitentiary rock quarry to honour the place of The Convict Lover in Canada’s literary landscape.
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