The Language of Sycamores is the third novel in Lisa Wingate’s Tending Roses series.

Karen Sommerfield received two blows in one day. A routine test at the doctor’s office indicates her cancer may have returned. And her whole department, of which she was the head, has just been eliminated at her firm in their downsizing efforts. “I sat back in my chair, looked around my office, and for the first time in my life, felt completely worthless. What do you do when the thing you’ve put your time and effort, your heart and soul, into, the thing that is the biggest part of who you are, is gone? Where do you go from there?”

When her sister, Kate, calls with an invitation to come to Missouri, Karen agrees. Normally, she avoids Missouri. Her lifelong rivalry with her seemingly perfect sister, their different lifestyles, the difficulties with their father, all contribute to keeping her distance. But, learning that her pilot husband, James, is going to MO for the weekend as well, Karen decides the trip will take her mind off her troubles. She doesn’t tell anyone about her double dose of bad news at first. She’s still processing it, and she doesn’t want to seem any more imperfect.

Kate has made contact with some long lost cousins who have some old letters between their grandmother and Kate and Karen’s Grandma Rose. They discover the two grandmothers had a sister they never spoke of.

Meanwhile, Dell, an young girl from an impoverished neighbor of Grandma Rose’s, spends much of her time at Kate’s. Dell’s grandmother isn’t well, and Uncle Bobby, who lives with them, is an unsavory character.

As Karen makes discoveries about her family and tries to help Dell, her eyes are opened to her own misconceptions and to the needs of others. She’s reawakened to old interests she had closed the door to. And Grandma Rose’s advice comes back to her.

A couple of the quotes that stood out to me:

Grandma saw the poetry in ordinary things. She mused on the meaning of life while her hands were busy with everyday chores. Anything else would have been far too impractical to suit her.

It’s those little nicks and dents and imperfections of spirit that allow us to flow out into a thirsty world. It’s our scars that allow us to relate to the scars of others, our suffering that connects us to others who suffer.

The first two books, Tending Roses and Good Hope Road, didn’t seem to be connected. But this book ties them together with the cousins finding out about each other.

The title comes from something Grandma Rose used to say: when some surprise was coming or something was brewing, she’d say she heard it in the sycamores.

I did have a couple of problems with the book: the use of minced oaths and Dell’s supposedly somehow getting messages from the deceased Grandma Rose.

But otherwise, I enjoyed Karen’s journey from being self-absorbed and defensive to seeing people for who they are, not who she thought they were.