**Chap­ter Sum­ma­ry: Sev­en­teen: Ruthie**

Joe passed away on a Sun­day morn­ing, depart­ing qui­et­ly and peace­ful­ly, sur­round­ed by the love of his fam­i­ly. Though he had spent much of his life in soli­tude, he was ten­der­ly cra­dled in the affec­tion of those who remained. Leah was heart­bro­ken, mourn­ing him with tears, hold­ing his hand, and plant­i­ng kiss­es upon it. In con­trast, Mae and the nar­ra­tor main­tained their com­po­sure, embody­ing the strength of women accus­tomed to sor­row. Ben stood near­by, poised to guide Joe’s spir­it away, while their moth­er pre­ferred to dis­tance her­self from the scene, watch­ing the finch­es from the liv­ing room and sob­bing soft­ly.

Respect­ing Joe’s final wish­es, his body was cre­mat­ed. His ash­es were divid­ed, with one half laid to rest in Nova Sco­tia next to Char­lie and the oth­er half des­tined for Maine. Fol­low­ing a funer­al ser­vice and a peri­od of ten days, Leah joined the nar­ra­tor in return­ing to the berry fields, with the ash­es secured in the back seat.

Upon arriv­ing at the cab­in, which retained its charm with paint that sparkled in the fad­ing evening light, Leah admired the del­i­cate crafts­man­ship of her father. She del­i­cate­ly traced the out­lines of flow­ers, clouds, and the shim­mer­ing blue waves, reflect­ing on the beau­ty he had cre­at­ed.

Togeth­er, they laid Joe’s ash­es to rest beside the steps he had con­struct­ed. Hand in hand with Leah, her resem­blance to the nar­ra­tor was strik­ing, and in that moment, the nar­ra­tor began to release the bur­dens of her past, allow­ing a sense of clo­sure to wash over her. The rit­u­al of bury­ing Joe’s ash­es in such a cher­ished loca­tion sig­ni­fied not just an act of remem­brance, but also a poignant farewell, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant tran­si­tion in their lives as they nav­i­gat­ed the land­scape of loss.