Publisher's Synopsis
What if a group of individuals shared a relationship with one guardian angel? How would their lives be changed? What might they achieve together?
Retirement from her University faculty position should've brought relaxation and time for hobbies; instead, Bernice Langdon deals with a rapidly metastasizing cancer that just may kill her. Unbeknownst to anyone, Bernice harbors a secret that might save her life, and that secret may also save others as they gather to help the ailing professor embrace her treatment and handle the resulting journey of physical, emotional, and spiritual growth.
To discover the secret's possible benefit, she needs others. FIRST CIRCLE traces the paths of six other individuals who enter Bernice's life with individual and collective purpose soaring well beyond the purpose of their first visit across the transom of her neat, brick home on Fox Den Road. Each member of the First Circle shoulders individual challenges, yet together they navigate the little and big bends in life's road as they slowly, unknowingly come together to help Bernice through her illness and her treatment. Little do they know, they have a collective goal beyond Bernice. One of their group needs their help even more.
- Rusty is a street-smart, twenty-something gifted computer programmer working at an edgy entrepreneurial company and living life fast and loose
- Beverly is Bernice's beleaguered daughter-in-law who has lost her bearings in the rush to be the consummate soccer mom and support her inattentive, busy husband
- Carol is a spunky Filipino nurse who laughs heartily and often as she manages the demands of her two tweensters, and has neither enough money nor time to do it all
- Skip is a rising star in a downtown, high-powered law firm who balances demanding client expectations with the priorities of his energetic family
- Janet, a grey-haired retired secretary and church matriarch, looks for her next calling - how to use her time, talent, and deep religious convictions
- Roger, a fourteen-year-old paperboy, and all-around athlete, has a ready, shy smile for all he meets and a perspective beyond his years
From the youthful, fast-paced environment of Ridgewell Associates to the stained-glass grandeur of the Bedrock Hills church sanctuary, FIRST CIRCLE spins from city to suburbs. Across the elegant hallways of Dane & Caldwell and the corridors of the University Medical Center, a hand from afar provides direction and guidance to the group. Their individual faith journeys are tested repeatedly as they seek the purpose behind the unsolicited messages and work to solve the puzzle. Who is the sender and to what end are they called?
FIRST CIRCLE is a story of life and death, of coming to grips with the challenges of individual journeys through life, and of using one's talents to optimize outcomes for a collective good.
