Family Tree Quotes

“Don't let the things you have to do take over the things you love to do.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“heart—life had grace notes. These were moments so sweet that they could be tucked like the smallest of keepsakes, never to be forgotten. She”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“Aw, Gran.” Annie had been fighting tears from the moment she’d boarded the train from New York. “Please don’t leave me.” “I won’t,” she said with a gentle smile. “Keep me in your heart, and you’ll always know where to find me.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“All arguments, at their core, were about power. Who had it. Who wanted it. Who would surrender. Who would prevail.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“a fight was never about the thing being fought over.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“Don’t let the things you have to do take over the things you love to do,”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“A key moment. Tell me.” “That’s the moment when everything changes. There’s before, and then after. And once a key moment occurs, there’s no going back to before. You make a choice, and it’s like ringing a bell. You can’t unring it. A key moment is a feeling. Your heart”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“This hurt she felt was the price of loving with her whole heart. But having Gran in her life had been worth every moment of pain.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“When she was little and a bad dream woke her, Gran would advise her to change the channel by turning her pillow over. It worked every time.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“When times get hard and you start wondering why you got married in the first place, remember the love.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“quit arguing,” he said. “It’s a done deal.” He sat down and shoved first one foot, then the other, into his cowboy boots—the ridiculously expensive ones she had given him last Christmas. She’d never regretted the purchase, though, because they looked so good on him. “It’s not a done deal. We can still cancel. The budget for the show is already stretched to the limit. And a water buffalo? It’s going to be fifteen hundred pounds of stubborn.” “C’mon, babe.” Martin stood, his blue eyes twinkling like the sun on a swimming pool. “Working”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“her questions shooting at him like a barrage of machine-gun fire. He thought he did okay, because he was prepared. He had spent weeks reading and researching and studying, all the while waiting for the next round of bad news about his father.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“One afternoon, she went to Washington Square”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“life had grace notes. These were moments so sweet that they could be tucked like the smallest of keepsakes, never to be forgotten. She”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“Precision in language was the key to clarity. Specificity”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“The chilly blue of loneliness was a shadow on snow. The”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“Through this. Through to where? Where did you end up when you got through something? What happened at the end of through? Was it a destination? Or another open door? An escape hatch?”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“But life had a way of interfering with one’s plans. Things popped up unexpectedly, and suddenly a carefully plotted route had to be recalculated.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“Why did joy bring the same tears as sadness? Why did the throat and chest ache with fire, regardless? Was it because, deep down, everyone knew it was fragile and ephemeral? Did the tears come from the knowledge that everything could turn in the blink of an eye?”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“No, this was the kind of moment that made everything stop. You separated it from every other one, pressing the feeling to your heart, like a dried flower slipped between the pages of a beloved book. The moment was made of something fragile and delicate, yet it possessed the power to last forever.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“Another thing Gran would say was imprinted on Annie’s heart—remember the love. When times get hard and you start wondering why you got married in the first place, remember the love.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“In time, the grief turned into a dull ache with occasional flares of agony. It was like a fading bruise Annie forgot about until she bumped into a memory. Gran. It was the little moments that pierced most sharply, the remembrance of a smile, a gesture, a soft-voiced phrase.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“Although it seemed impossible to find joy in the depths of her grief, Annie sensed that this was what Gran had been trying to tell her all along. She finally understood. This hurt she felt was the price of loving with her whole heart. But having Gran in her life had been worth every moment of pain.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“Gran was gone. She had passed quietly one night in springtime, and Annie’s world shifted on its axis. The pain of this grief was like nothing she had ever felt before.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“She could scarcely move at all. Her muscles felt impossibly weak. Her limbs were gummy worms. She looked at her hands. Looked at her mother. “Is that what happened to my manicure? It’s gone because I’ve been asleep for a year? A whole freaking year? That’s impossible.” It was the kind of thing people passed around on the Internet—Woman Sleeps for a Year, Wakes Up Angry About Manicure.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“Okay, did you know there’s a basketball court on the top floor of the Supreme Court building?” “Nobody knows that,” said Fletcher. “I do. Highest court in the land.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“Annie’s other prized book lay nearby—a copy of Lord of the Flies, a vintage clothbound volume in a sturdy slipcase, one of three copies she possessed. She hoped the reporter wouldn’t ask about that.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“My grandmother used to always say, if you can’t be on time, be early.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“remember the love.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree

“DEDICATION In memory of my dad, Nick Klist —with deepest gratitude for all the love, the courage, the laughter, and the wisdom of a lifetime. He lives in the hearts of those who loved him.”
― Susan Wiggs, Family Tree