Heirloom

Nineteen-year-old Clara Bender has lived in a small Indiana Amish community where few young men are available to court. Since her widowed father has remarried, her help is no longer needed at home, and she sees marriage as the most realistic way to leave. Letters from her mother's aunt, Ella Mae Zook, lead Clara to Hickory Hollow in Lancaster County, where she plans to weigh her options. Ella Mae is reluctant to leave the farmhouse she shared with her husband, who died recently, after more than fifty years together. Her children want her to move closer to them, so Clara's arrival comes at a convenient moment.

As the two women restore an heirloom wedding quilt, their friendship deepens. Ella Mae shares a painful memory from her own courting days. Before long she proposes that Clara remain through the summer, which would give her a chance to meet the area's single men and give Ella Mae more time with her family's newest visitor. Then something unforeseen happens, and Clara must decide where her heart truly belongs.

This novel is a prequel to The Shunning. Beverly Lewis is known for her Amish-set fiction, and this book is a romance centered on faith, family and community.