On her eighty-third birthday Winifred Goodbody felt Reaper’s scratchy nuzzle along her neck and shoulders. Provoked, she purchased and began to read a copy of Great Expectations.

Skitter of hungry mice behind the baseboard excited her breathing. The cobwebbed wedding cake burdened her dreams.

The steady cruelty shaping Estella’s life stirred distant memories.

She commented to her retirement home friends: Maybe it’s my age. Or life experience. Seen too many harried sisters, but I’m cheering for Miss Havisham to overcome her misdirected shame and isolation.

Beside which, Winifred stressed, having a long book to finish helps keep a person alive.