“The Cemetery Club” by Ivan Menchell – May 2023

Synopsis

The Cemetery Club" is a funny and heart-warming story about friendship, loss, and finding love again later in life.
Three Jewish widows from Queens, New York, meet once a month for tea and gossip before going to the cemetery to visit their husbands' graves.
Ida is sweet-tempered and ready to move on but feels guilty about loving another man;
Lucille is feisty, the perfect embodiment of the girl who wants to have fun, whereas Doris remains devoted to the memory of her late husband, believing marriages are forever.
When an encounter with the local butcher Sam at the cemetery leads to a special friendship for Ida, can their burgeoning romance survive Lucille's and Doris' meddling?
And what happens when Sam takes Mildred, the seductress, instead of Ida to a mutual friend's wedding?

Fall, 1995 in Queens, New York

Act I
Scene 1: Ida's living room.
Scene 2: The cemetery.
Scene 3: Ida's house. Late afternoon.
Scene 4: The cemetery: Abe's plot. Late afternoon, a month later.
INTERVAL - 20 minutes
Act II
Scene 1: Ida's living room, a couple of weeks later.
Scene 2: Ida's living room, 2am.
Scene 3: Ida's living room, later that same morning.
Scene 4: The cemetery: Abe's plot. Late afternoon, several weeks later.