Poignant New Novel from Amish Genre's Top Author
Marlena Wenger has been sent to rural Brownstown, Pennsylvania to assist her widowed Mennonite grandmother for the summer, a situation that takes her miles from her Old Order beau in Mifflinburg. Marlena's responsibilities unexpectedly double when she also has to care for her Englisher infant niece, Angela Rose, after her estranged older sister, Luella, is a terrible car accident while Luella's husband is serving in Vietnam. Feeling out of her element in nearly every respect, Marlena determines to do her best and keep focused on her future with her beau . . . until her sister succumbs to her injuries.
With Marlena's beloved beau so far away--and him concerned about what her commitment to Angela Rose might mean for their eventual marriage--Marlena turns to her grandmother's neighbor Ellie Bitner and her family for friendship. Yet Ellie's life has complications of its own, complications that only increase when Ellie's son discovers a homeless man camped out in the nearby mill. Suffering from some cognitive disorder, the man has few prospects and fewer possessions--among them a clutch of letters apparently from his own courting days. Could these letters be a key to the old man's identity? And can they--and the relationships they help to foster--bring healing and hope to Marlena and Ellie as well?