"Miranda did not put adventure on her Christmas list, but thanks to her eighty-five-year-old neighbor Joy, that's exactly what she's getting this year. When Joy tells Miranda that she plans to drive an old RV decked out in Christmas decorations from their Chicago neighborhood to her new retirement digs in Phoenix--in the dead of winter, no less--the much younger Miranda insists that Joy cannot make such a trip by herself. Besides, a crazy trip with...

Effervescent octogenarian Dorothy Jean Wetstra, a former bandleader, and the other inhabitants of Partonville, Illinois, a small farming community, confront some of the many surprises and new challenges of life.

"Since her husband's sudden passing two years ago, Lynn has been lost in the grief and solitude she feels without him at home. She doesn't want to sell the big family place, but she can't exist there on her own much longer. After hearing of a new way of living--where single women share responsibilities as housemates--Lynn thinks she's found the answer to her prayers. Soon she meets two ladies with whom she could begin this journey. Angela Bishop has...

The Anthony family, on the run from their alcoholic husband and father, leaves Minneapolis for the small town of Mills River, Ill. But they've barely begun to acclimate when sassy old lady Tillie Monroe shows up at their doorstep explaining that the house once belonged to her and her late husband.

Rachel Hurst sacrificed the life she wanted to stay home and care for her father and siblings after her mother's death. But now her father has decided to remarry, and there's no room for Rachel. Desperate to find a job, she accepts the position of housekeeper for a wealthy elderly woman in her isolated mansion. Jacob Beiler thought he had gotten over Rachel's rejection, but when she arrives as the new housekeeper, he is battered by both joy and bitterness...

"All her life, Jane believes she is small-town ordinary...until she isn't. Some people brand her a witch because of the cat while others believe she has a demon. Her family thinks she's ready for the nursing home, and the down-and-out reporter assumes she's a fake. But nobody, including Jane, can figure out how she does it: heal the sick. All the sick. All the time. Is it a gift of God? The church is divided. Then, everything erupts when the foreigners...

When an aged woman happens upon a box of old trinkets at an estate sale, she learns about the owner of the items from those who loved her best.

When Gran Thomas finds herself hospitalized, the prognosis for a complete recovery is bleak. Her young grandson Tommy cannot understand why she will no longer be there for him, or why she is so sad. He feels he must do something to help her. Finally, when Tommy pushes himself through the secret opening in Gran's wooden fence, he discovers a gift of love that promises to bind them together forever.

In the wake of the depression of 1929, four friends gather in a cold, dusty attic on Christmas day to make a solemn pact. "Our dreams for the future," they whisper, as they place tiny pieces of paper holding their life wishes into the blue bottle. Sixty-five years later, local news reporter Brendan Delaney stumbles upon the bottle, discovering the most meaningful story of her career and possibly the meaning missing from her own life.--Source other...

Ivy Malone is an inconspicious older woman who has a curiosity gene that often lands her in trouble