The Widows

June M. Blurton is a retired speech/language pathologist.

The Widows is the story of three old women, immigrants from Germany, who
have made tolerably satisfactory adjustments to living in Canada. When
two of the women lose their jobs, their lives suddenly seem to lack
meaning. The youngest woman, who has long been entranced by Niagara
Falls, discovers that her boyfriend has built a brilliant orange barrel
capable of withstanding the battering of the Falls. She coerces her
sister and her friend into going over the Falls in the “Niagara
Ball.”

The story is interspersed with excerpts from books on the history of
the Falls. The characters are eccentric, but generally believable and
often funny. The author has chosen not to present events in
chronological order, which detracts from the pleasure of this book