"'Anyway, that's not the half of it, not even a small bit of it, actually. The main thing is, I kept you and Tommy apart.' Her voice had dropped again, almost to a whisper. 'That was the worst thing I did.'" pg. 332
Toward the end of her life, when she is reunited with Kathy and Tommy, Ruth has had time to realize what she did wrong and she wants to fix it. She should have never lied to Kathy about her feelings. She should have been a better friend. She should have never cheated on Tommy. She should have never kept Tommy and Kathy apart in the first place.
In the end, Ruth realizes that her own selfishness and greed are what led her to where she was. Had she not craved to be better than Kathy, she might have ended up with a life that suited herself. Instead, she tried to make Kathy jealous. She tried to seem perfect, and she wanted everything for herself. That was her downfall.
Had Ruth not been so selfish, she may have gone far in life. Her friendships with Kathy and Tommy may not have dissolved like they did. Instead, she was now going to die young and feeling terrible about her life.
However, Ruth tries to change it in the end. She wants to make amends with her friends, so she tries to get them together one last time. She apologizes to them for all the wrong she's done and encourages them to develop the love that they have for each other which she has held off for so long.
Even though her selfishness led to her downfall, the fact that she tried to fix what she'd done wrong allowed her to die with dignity.
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