Showing results by author "Viola Shipman" in All Categories

When Sonny Dunes, a SoCal meteorologist whose job is all sunshine and 72-degree days, is replaced by a virtual meteorologist that will never age, gain weight or renegotiate its contract, the only station willing to give the 50-year-old another shot is the very place Sonny’s been avoiding since the day she left for college — her northern Michigan hometown.

Adie Lou Kruger’s ex never understood her affection for what her parents called their Cozy Cottage, the charming, ramshackle summer home - complete with its own set of rules for relaxing - that she’s inherited on Lake Michigan. But despite the fact she’s facing a broken marriage and empty nest and that middle age is looming in the distance, memories of happy childhoods on the beach give her reason for hope. But converting the beloved, weather-beaten structure into a bed-and-breakfast isn’t quite the efficient home-reno experience she’s seen on TV.

For most of her eighty years, Mary Jackson has been waiting. As she’s endured the steady invasion of tourists, influencers and real estate developers who have discovered the lakeside charm of Good Hart, Michigan, she’s also patiently anticipated the arrival of a stranger she’s believed since childhood would one day carry on her legacy—the Very Cherry General Store. Like generations of Jackson women before her, Cherry Mary, as she’s known locally, runs the community hub.

The discovery of one woman's heirloom hope chest unveils precious memories and helps three people who have each lost a part of themselves find joy once again.

Once the hottest mergers and acquisitions executive in the company, Henrietta Wegner can see the ambitious and impossibly young up-and-comers gunning for her job. When Henri’s boss makes it clear she’ll be starting the New Year unemployed unless she can close a big deal before the holidays, Henri impulsively tells him that she can convince her aging parents to sell Wegner’s—their iconic Frankenmuth, Michigan, Christmas store—to a massive, soulless corporation. It’s the kind of deal cool, corporate Henri has built her career on.

Iris Maynard lost her husband in World War II, her daughter to illness and, finally, her reason to live. Walled off from the world for decades behind the towering fence surrounding her home, Iris has built a new family…of flowers. Iris propagates her own daylilies and roses while tending to a garden filled with the heirloom starts that keep the memories of her loved ones alive.

Growing up in northern Michigan, Samantha “Sam” Mullins felt trapped on her family’s orchard and pie shop, so she left with dreams of making her own mark in the world. But life as an overworked, undervalued sous chef at a reality star’s New York bakery is not what Sam dreamed.

Despite losing her parents in a tragic accident just before her fourteenth Christmas, Susan Norcross has had it better than most, with loving grandparents to raise her and a gang of quirky, devoted friends to support her. Now a successful bookstore owner in a tight-knit Michigan lakeside community, Susan is facing down forty—the same age as her mother when she died—and she can’t help but see everything she hasn’t achieved, including finding a love match of her own.

Elizabeth, Veronica, Rachel and Emily met at Camp Birchwood as girls in 1985, where over four summers they were the Clover Girls—inseparable for those magical few weeks of freedom—until the last summer that pulled them apart. Now approaching middle age, the women are facing challenges they never imagined as teens, struggles with their marriages, their children, their careers, and wondering who it is they see when they look in the mirror. Then Liz, V and Rachel each receive a letter from Emily with devastating news. She implores the girls to reunite at Camp Birchwood one last time.

Devastated by the sudden death of her mother—a quiet, loving and intensely private Southern seamstress called Miss Mabel, who overflowed with pearls of Ozarks wisdom but never spoke of her own family—Sutton Douglas makes the impulsive decision to pack up and head north to the Michigan resort town where she believes she’ll find answers to the lifelong questions she’s had about not only her mother’s past but also her own place in the world.

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On her birthday each year, Lolly's mother gave her a charm - along with the advice that there is nothing more important than keeping family memories alive, and so Lolly's charm bracelet would be a constant reminder of that love. Now 70 and starting to forget things, Lolly knows time is running out to reconnect with a daughter and granddaughter whose lives have become too busy for Lolly or her family stories.

Als Kind bekommt Mattie eine Truhe geschenkt, um darin zu sammeln, was sie als Erwachsene an ihre Familie erinnern wird: ihre geliebte Stoffpuppe, glitzernder Christbaumschmuck, eine Vase ihrer Mutter und vieles mehr. Jahrzehnte später: Mattie ist schwer erkrankt. Ihr Mann Don sorgt sich sehr um sie und stellt die junge Rose als Pflegerin ein. Rose entdeckt die Truhe mit den Familienerbstücken. Als Mattie anfängt, ihr die Geschichten dazu zu erzählen, erkennt Rose, wie sie Mattie und Don dabei helfen kann, in ihrem letzten gemeinsamen Jahr füreinander da zu sein.

Großmutter Lolly lebt noch immer am Lost Land Lake, wo ihre Mutter ihr vor langer Zeit als Symbol für ihre Verbindung zur Familie ein Armband mit Anhängern schenkte. Aber Lollys Tochter Arden und ihre Enkelin Lauren haben sie seit Jahren nicht mehr besucht, und ihr läuft die Zeit davon. Nun schickt sie beiden einen Brief mit einem Anhänger für ihre Armbänder. Arden und Lauren sind alarmiert. Ein Hilferuf? Sie brechen sofort auf.

Großmutter Lolly lebt noch immer am Lost Land Lake, wo ihre Mutter ihr vor langer Zeit als Symbol für ihre Verbindung zur Familie ein Armband mit Anhängern schenkte. Aber Lollys Tochter Arden und ihre Enkelin Lauren haben sie seit Jahren nicht mehr besucht, und ihr läuft die Zeit davon. Nun schickt sie beiden einen Brief mit einem Anhänger für ihre Armbänder. Arden und Lauren sind alarmiert. Ein Hilferuf?