In the chap­ter titled “Ruthie,” the nar­ra­tive opens in a small, musty room that embod­ies a sense of his­to­ry, filled with fam­i­ly mem­o­ries of joy and sor­row. Ruthie, expe­ri­enc­ing a tumult of emo­tions, steps into this inti­mate space, con­fronting the real­i­ty of her broth­er Joe’s ter­mi­nal ill­ness. As she attempts to con­nect with Joe, she grap­ples with feel­ings of antic­i­pa­tion and dread, nev­er hav­ing been so close to death or to a broth­er before. Their reunion is marked by Joe express­ing a desire to be left alone, yet he wel­comes her com­pa­ny when he admits the dis­com­forts of his ill­ness are sim­ply his new real­i­ty.

The con­ver­sa­tion unfolds, reveal­ing Ruthie’s strug­gle with her iden­ti­ty as she adjusts to being called Ruthie again, a name she had long lost touch with dur­ing her pre­vi­ous life as Nor­ma. Encour­aged by fam­i­ly mem­bers Mae and Ben, her dis­qui­et slow­ly trans­forms into hap­pi­ness at the prospect of belong­ing to this fam­i­ly she bare­ly knew. In an act of shared his­to­ry, Joe presents her with the old boots and a sock doll—a poignant con­nec­tion to her past and a reminder of a child­hood left behind.

As the fam­i­ly comes togeth­er for break­fast, Ruthie’s moth­er express­es her long-held hope that Ruthie would return, rein­forc­ing the deep bond of love that exists despite the years of sep­a­ra­tion. Their con­ver­sa­tion reveals shared mem­o­ries, includ­ing the unveil­ing of Ruthie’s true her­itage as Mi’kmaw and her expe­ri­ences grow­ing up in a dif­fer­ent fam­i­ly. The warmth of famil­ial love envelops Ruthie, yet she wres­tles with guilt and his­tor­i­cal trau­ma stem­ming from her child­hood deci­sions.

On an out­ing, they vis­it the ruins of a fam­i­ly home, where shared laugh­ter brings fleet­ing moments of reprieve, even as Joe, while near­ing the end of his life, insists on enjoy­ing what lit­tle time is left. The day clos­es in a star­ry field, a serene acknowl­edg­ment of con­nec­tion and belong­ing amid the pain of loss, evok­ing deep feel­ings of nos­tal­gia and the joy of redis­cov­ered fam­i­ly ties .