vanessa sees a harsh land clutched in the icy remains of a slow-melting winter she thinks she must see it with very different eyes than the older woman 's that 's unavoidable they are both wondering how they 're going to get along and are both highly conscious of the fact that it has only been a few hours now since they put the older woman 's husband in the ground and now here they are just met and possessing all that worry of being too close vanessa knows it well enough knows a life cramped in subway cars and elevators with those whom she would rather avoid but never mind they must simply bear each other after all they have a job to do and here they are now turning up the long drive going slowly past the curtain of the proud black ash trees that stand in a line between the road and the house of joanna and dc glaser who is now deceased and buried back in his native ithaca under the shade of a beloved oak like something out of poetry or a sentimental novel .