Myrna

Myrna is one of the main characters of the short story. Like her close friends, Leonie, Chrissy, and Fern, Myrna is an elderly woman in the narrative present. She used to teach at the university level after abandoning her student dreams of becoming a creative writer. In the present, she lives with her husband Cal in the same house in Toronto where they have resided for many years. Although she and her friends meet up on a regular basis, normally taking turns hosting, no one likes going to Myrna’s because it is “always a mess” and no one is sure “which of her kids or grandkids might be in residence and clamoring for attention, or screaming with joy or anger and running around naked in the backyard” (11, 12). Not unlike her home life, Myrna’s interiority is also chaotic. She has a running internal monologue and is constantly...