N. M. Lander

The December Angel N. M. Lander

With the blink of an eye, Mariella, a professional writer who once felt she was on top of the world, watches as her life crumbles right before her eyes. The love of her life and her strength, her husband Daniel, a powerful business attorney, was diagnosed with leukemia. After hearing that he collapsed while in his law firm's office, Mariella rushes to be at Daniel's side. As a writer, Mariella would write month after month in her own Journal¯and during times when she was facing situations as a person that she is trying to become. Mariella and her two young girls watch while Daniel becomes weaker and sicker, struggling each day with a disease that the doctors were unable to cure. All they could do was stand there and watch and make whatever time left to be memorable. As Mariella was trying to keep strong for her husband and two young girls, Cassidy and Ryder, she found herself building a wall to block out her own emotions¯a wall Mariella had put up for strength while dealing with Daniel's sickness. Faced with the challenges of moving on without him at her side, she tried to keep life normal in New England. After losing Dan, she found that the changes she was making in her life were not enough. It is not that she didn't want to lose memories of Dan, however, she wanted to wipe off those bad memories, the ones of him becoming weak and sick. Mariella and her two young girls would soon find their new home in a town outside of Nashville, Tennessee, called Golden Oaks. Moving to the South and leaving her northern life behind her, she began running a local bed and breakfast while still writing. Here, she met Brenda, a woman who she became good friends with and who introduced her to Jordan, a man who she would soon consider the new love of her life. Soon finding love again with a professional hockey player and also a coach for her daughter's hockey team, she began to regain the part of her that was missing from her life-