Harold and Lucille Hargrave's lives have been both joyful and sorrowful in the decades since their only son, Jacob, died tragically at his eighth birthday party in 1966. Now they've settled into old age, their wounds tempered through the grace of time. And then Jacob mysteriously appears on their doorstep -- flesh and blood, their sweet, precocious child, still eight years old -- as all over the world, people's loved ones return from the beyond.

Themes of grief, love, and renewed faith intertwine in this winsome novella by best-selling author Melody Carlson. The recently widowed Claire Andrews is mourning the deaths of her husband and young son who were killed in a boating accident. Grief-stricken and angry with God, Claire, a professional artist, finds she is no longer able to paint. In her sorrow, she flees to an isolated cabin in the Cascade Mountains to find solace and healing, and hopefully,...

Neighborhood children imaginatively stage funerals for dead bugs, but they experience real sadness following the death of a pet.

When a car accident kills two teens from opposite sides of the tracks, the aftermath threatens to tear a community apart. On one side, Melanie Johnston--a grieving single mother--is convinced her son will be forgotten. On the other is Andie Phelps, a reserved woman who retreats even further into herself with grief. Readers' emotions are torn between these two sympathetic characters as each fights her way through grief and pain--sometimes wisely and...

Betta Nolan moves to a small town after the death of her husband to try to begin anew. Pursuing a dream of a different kind of life, she is determined to find pleasure in her simply daily routines. Among those who help her in both expected and unexpected ways are the ten-year-old boy next door, three wild women friends from her college days, a twenty-year-old who is struggling to find his place in the world, and a handsome man who is ready for love....