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by Cisco Mills (Author)
STILL GARDEN
Grief is not for the faint of heart.
When David Mills inherits his grandfather's house two months after his mother's death, he expects silence and an empty garden. Instead, he finds Samantha-the philodendron his mother tended faithfully-who begins speaking to him with uncomfortable wisdom about loss, love, and the difference between healing and hiding.
David isn't sure if he's having a breakdown or a breakthrough. But as he learns to tend the garden his mother planned but never finished, he discovers he's not alone. Nine-year-old Eli from next door has been talking to Samantha since his own father died. And Eileen, a nurse who understands that some wounds we carry rather than cure, helps David see that the deepest growth happens underground-invisible but essential.
What happens when you stop trying to overcome grief and start learning to grow through it?
Through a talking plant, neighbors carrying their own losses, and the slow work of letting community form around shared brokenness, David learns that love doesn't end when bodies fail-it just learns to speak in different languages.
For readers who need permission to be angry at God, who want their broken places witnessed rather than fixed, and who understand that the most beautiful gardens are the ones that learn to be still.
For fans of When Breath Becomes Air, H is for Hawk, and The Language of Flowers
