By “Making the Best of What’s Left: When We’re Too Old to Get the Chairs Reupholstered” by Judith Viorst

c.2025, Simon & Schuster $28.99 192 pages

The end is in sight.

Not that you’re eager to reach it, of course, but it’s there. Never mind; you’ve got plans, a long bucket list, places to be.

Still, keep your eyes on that finish line. As in the new book, “Making the Best of What’s Left” by Judith Viorst, you’d hate if it sneaks up on you.

Just over two years ago, in late 2022, Judith Viorst’s husband of more than six decades, Milton, died in his sleep after a short illness. He wasn’t “allowed” to do it, she says, but he did anyway and she became a widow, thereby joining a club nobody wants to belong to.

Also, nobody explains how to be a widow, so Viorst does. Among other things.

Not long before Milton died, for instance, they moved away from a house that Viorst loved, into an “RC,” a retirement community. Emphasis on the word “community” because Viorst says she isn’t lonely. With so many things available to do and so many people around to do them with, she doesn’t see how anyone can be lonely, really. She knows lots of people who use their “Final Fifth” of life to serve, give, act, and enjoy. Not that anyone has to be active, because the Final Fifth of life should be what you want it to be.

“Old,” says Viorst, “isn’t just a state of mind… It’s also a nonnegotiable reality.”

That’s something everyone needs to learn.

Older people often lose their choice. They’re ignored or they “become invisible…” but “WE’RE STILL HERE,” she says, at age ninety-four. She might not understand her cell phone, but she can write. She might have to watch her friends leave this Earth, but she can still remember them with gratitude. She can still remind readers of the need to think before we act, at any age. Viorst can still love, although she’s really not interested in that kind of love.

She doesn’t “want some Perfect Pete or Terrific Ted. I just want my imperfect Milton to stop being dead.”

If you’re very lucky, you’re going to get old someday. Also if you’re smart, you’ll use “Making the Best of What’s Left” as a sort of guidebook.

In a you-have-to-laughor- you’ll-cry kind of way, author Judith Viorst gives readers a peek at what it’s like to live with your beloved for not nearly enough time, and how to survive their afterward.

Readers who have lost their spouses will feel as though they’ve met a kindred spirit here, and that can be comforting but this book isn’t all sad. Viorst tells her stories of Milton and their family, friends, fans, and acquaintances with humor and menschlike advice but also with the kind of love that will make you understand that bad things happen and life goes on, though it sometimes stinks.

You may have loved Viorst’s book as a child, but this memoir will mean more to someone who’s well past grade school. If that’s you, then put “Making the Best of What’s Left” in your sights.