Where Wilted Flowers Bloom by Johanna Rojas Vann

Sandra Brown has always felt secure in her marriage to her husband Aaron, in her role as a parent of two children, and in her prestigious career, which regularly boosts her self-esteem and affirms her gifts. And she loves living in New York City with her extended Colombian American family nearby, especially feeling close to her wise and pious mother and her loving sister, who, finally, after years of infertility, will be giving birth to a baby soon.

But when tragedy strikes and Sandra and Aaron’s third child dies, Sandra feels compelled to get away from the places that remind her of baby Rose. A job transfer from New York City to East Nashville, Tenn., offered to Aaron seems to Sandra like an opportune way to avoid her grief, though she’s not aware of how deeply entrenched is her desire to escape.

Against her family’s and Aaron’s better judgment, Sandra insists that they move, thereby beginning a lonely pattern of evasion of grief, one that is already negatively affecting her marriage and children.

In her large, newly constructed East Nashville home, Sandra notices an elderly man in the modest home next door sitting on his porch. Feeling unmoored in her new community and in her nascent role as a stay-at-home mom, Sandra is drawn into an unconventional friendship with Mark, the widowed, retired pastor of First Baptist Church, the congregation he had served for 30 years.

Sandra and her children visit Mark regularly in his lovely backyard garden, one that was established by his deceased wife, Thelma, and which he now meticulously maintains in her memory. Because Sandra always loved nurturing houseplants—there wasn’t the possibility of a large garden in the city—she finds in Mark’s garden a refuge from her grief.

As the two begin to share their stories—different kinds of losses, yet each acutely felt—Mark perceives the pressure that Rose’s death is having on Sandra and Aaron’s marriage. With wisdom gained from years of counseling people as a pastor, Mark helps Sandra to begin to understand how grief can change relationships forever, but how, even then, God is present in his goodness.

Now that Sandra has such a good friend in Mark, she’s sure she can continue to cope with her sorrow and to find her way in her new locale. But when she begins to notice that Mark is becoming forgetful, she’s drawn into a crisis that becomes a test of their relationship. Now she wonders if she can survive another loss.

Author Rojas Vann’s novel reveals her extraordinary and realistic understanding of the manifestations of grief—sorrow, depression, rage, destructive behavior, and more—and depicts her grasp of the truth that God’s unconditional love and power are sufficient for every circumstance. Rojas Vann’s portrayals of childbirth, the death of a child, the struggles faced by stay-at-home moms, the challenges of raising children, marriages under stress, and growing old ring authentically true.

In Where Wilted Flowers Bloom, readers will encounter a poignant story replete with authentic characters and much biblical wisdom to ponder.

(WaterBrook)