The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston

 I've been trying to read uplifting books lately because the news from everywhere has been so depressing. Frederick Fife perfectly fit the bill.

Frederick is a sweet 80-something widower who is about to get evicted after spending all his savings paying for his beloved wife's medical bills. As he's walking by the river trying to figure out what to do, he sees an elderly man who has fallen out of his wheelchair. When he gets closer, he realizes the man is dead--and he was part of a group from a nearby nursing home. He tries to wheel the man back to the group, but loses his grip and the dead man falls into the river and floats away. When he tries to tell the nursing home staff, they think HE is the dead man, put him in the wheelchair and take him back to the home. (Apparently the 2 men looked very similar) And because no one really listens to old people, the more he trieds to tell them what happened, the more they assume that is his dementia talking. So Frederick finds himself being called Bernard. Because he had nowhere else to go, he's happy to be fed and taken care of. But he also feels guilty about taking over someone else's life. 

Because Frederick is a genuinely kind, empathetic person, he starts to have a positive impact on several other nursing home residents and staff members. And he thinks maybe he can just stay there till he dies. But one day, Bernard's estranged daughter, Hannah, shows up. And things take an interesting turn.

The story alternates between Frederick's story (past and present) and Hannah's story (past and present) as well as the story of nurse Denise, the only staff member who is suspicious about "Bernard's" suddenly improved attitude, dementia, and incontinence issues. A wonderful story.