"A Mending At The Edge" by Jane Kirkpatrick

"A Mending At The Edge" by Jane Kirkpatrick gets 4 stars from me. I didn't give it 5 stars because it is a rather long story and at times slow reading,  I did enjoy reading about Emma and the members of the Aurora Colony. It is the third in the Change and Cherish Historical Series. I felt there was alot of repeating scenes in these three books. I think the story could have been shorter and still been told. These three books are fiction but are based on actual events.

My questions that I left in my review of "A Tendering in the Storm" has been answered.

Yes Emma sees her parents and is reunited with them. Yes her son becomes a doctor. Emma gets her own house but at a cost.

Emma even climbed to the bellfry and stood upside down on the bells.

Emma has more challenges and growing in this book as well as the others.  I found myself actually feeling her pain as she is forced to let someone else raise her sons again but in the end realized that the time and place she was in that maybe that was the best from them.

Emma tries to follow The Diamond Rule in inviting outsiders to live with her in her two door house.

Emma and the others who live with her start a inhouse church on Sundays when there are no church meetings and it from this, that changes are discussed and then plans are made to convince their leader Brother Kiel to think it was his idea such as allowing men and women both to sing when they have the service for the new bells.  It is at one of these meetings the idea is formed to build a restaurant at the State fair that is held every October. It was at these meeting they were able to connivence Louisa that it was okay to mend quilts for others and not for themselves on Sundays.

Brother Kiel and Louisa Kiel have another heartache in this book to accept and it changes them both once again.

This book shows that when you give to others you help yourself.

In closing this review I want to include a quote from the book that I think sums Emma really well.
Page 284 "I looked down at my hand. The crooked fingers would always be a reminder of Jack. But they'd remind me, too, of my strength, my ability to take necessary next steps for my family. Maybe I wouldn't bring a dozen people to the faith the way Christian had; maybe I wouldn't tend a large family as my mother did;maybe I'd never be as faithful as Helena and Louisa , but I was who I was;I would leave a legacy of everyday devotion both to my family and to the delights of life, including standing upside down on a bell.

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