Abigail Durham and Justin Girard meet just a few minutes
before an EF5 tornado hits their small Midwest town of
Rawston. As they walk through the rubbish after they emerge
from the restaurant refrigerator where they sought refuge,
Abigail is looking for anything salvageable. She begins
picking up small pieces of fabrics from dresses, window
curtains, jackets, etc. and puts them into a bag.
Selma Tally is Abigail's aunt and only relative in Rawston.
Selma's house came through the tornado without a scratch.
She and a friend drive toward town in search of Abigail,
her friend's daughter who was at her high school prom when
the tornado hit, and anyone else who is in need. Selma ends
up with Abigail, Justin, a young couple and their baby and
her friend and her daughter at her home. All have lost
their homes and everything they own. Aunt Selma has plenty
of room and loves the company.
When Abigail shows Aunt Selma the bag of fabric scraps,
Selma gets the idea to make them into a quilt. The group at
Selma's house starts piecing together a quilt to honor a
beloved friend who did not make it through the storm. This
group activity causes them to ask some of the tough
questions in life about why some die so young when they are
such good, loving people. In the process of making the
quilt, answers come to life for some of these questions.
Abigail and Justin develop a bond of friendship through
this trial, but could there be a spark of romance here too?
What does Abigail have left in Rawston? She has no home, no
business, no worldly possessions. Should she move on?
BEYOND THE STORM is a touching story about shredded hope
and shattered dreams. Can the pieces of these people's
lives be put back together as easily as fashioning a quilt
from tattered pieces of cloth? This is the first story in a
series where each book in the series is by a different
author and there are different genres within the series.
This one is a keeper.
After a tornado rips through her town, store owner Abigail
comes across a piece of fabric from a wedding dress among
the devastation. Abigail is moved to start collecting other
swatches of fabric she finds – her neighbor’s kitchen
curtains, a man’s necktie, a dog’s bed – which she stashes
in shopping bags. As she pursues her seemingly absurd quest,
horrible realities spark the question, “What kind of a God
would allow such tragedy?â€
As she struggles to reconcile her right to happiness amidst
the destruction, Abigail begins piecing together a patchwork
quilt from the salvaged fabric in hopes it will bring some
peace. But a new relationship with Justin, a contractor, may
require too much of her fragile heart. Will her pain and
questions of faith give way to the courage to love?