"Get your tissues or handkerchief ready. You’re going to need them when you read Lisa Wingate’s book, Tending Roses. Your emotions will run the gamut from laughing loudly to shedding tears as you read the story." McAlester News-Capital & Democrat "This novel’s strength is its believable characters…Many readers will see themselves in Kate, who is so wrapped up in her own problems that she fails to see the worries of others." American Profiles Weekly Magazine "You can’t put it down without…taking a good look at your own life and how misplaced priorities might have led to missed opportunities. Tending Roses is an excellent read for any season, a celebration of the power of love." El Paso Times

Tending Roses
Lisa Wingate

The best times of my life, the times that have passed by me the most quickly, were the times when the roses grew wild.

The lessons that most enrich our lives often come unexpectedly. That’s what Kate Bowman learns when she moves temporarily—with her husband and baby son—to her grandmother’s Missouri farm. The family has given Kate the job of convincing Grandma Rose, who’s become increasingly stubborn and forgetful, to move off her beloved land and into a nursing home. But Kate knows such a change would break her grandmother’s heart.

Just when Kate despairs of finding answers, she discovers her grandma’s journal. A beautiful handmade notebook, it is full of stories that celebrate the importance of family, friendship, and faith. Stories that make Kate see her life—and her grandmother—in a completely new way.

"Stop what you are doing and experience Tending Roses...A rich story of family and faith."—Lynne Hinton, author of Friendship Cake

"Wingate’s touching story of love and faith proves the old adage that we should take time to smell the roses and try to put our modern problems in perspective."—Booklist

"A story at once gentle and powerful about the very old and the very young, about the young woman who loves them all. In Kate, Lisa Wingate has created a wonderful character."—Luanne Rice, New York Times bestselling author of True Blue

Accent, February 2003
ISBN #0451205790
336 pages Paperback (reprint)
$6.99