The Longest Ride

Ira recalls reluctantly selling his family’s haberdasher shop for far less than it was worth. The store long struggled against larger department stores. Ruth’s spirit reminds Ira how much she relished her more than 30 years as a third-grade teacher. She worried about students from poor families who would only complete sixth grade or children from divorced families who suffered deep emotional hurt.

One in particular was Daniel McCallum, a wild and free-spirited young boy in whom Ruth took special interest. His parents were dead, and the boy was being raised by a violent and abusive stepbrother. Ruth tutored Daniel after school, encouraged him, and eventually invited the boy to stay with them. Ruth became a kind of mother to Daniel, and she and Ira thought about pursuing adoption when the boy suddenly disappeared without explanation. Ruth’s heart was broken: “Daniel had filled a hole in Ruth that [Ira] could not, something that had been missing in our marriage, he’d become the child she’d always wanted, the child [Ira] could never give her” (263).

After Daniel disappeared, their marriage lapsed into a sadness Ira could not dispel: “I was sad for her and angry with myself, and I hated what was happening to us.