Jeffrey Matthews

Carry Us All Jeffrey Matthews

Forgiveness comes in many forms, from many places, and for many reasons. But often the hardest forgiveness to accept is the forgiveness you sometimes need to give yourself.

Kevin Ahern is a lost and broken man. Faced with crushing guilt over something he could not have foreseen nor controlled, Kevin sets out to find his own redemption. He hopes to bring back to life one of the things his daughter loved most--a carousel. The restoration of an antique carousel and the resurrection of the dying carousel art form soon become his sole passion and quest in life.

Just finding this lost historical gem will prove difficult enough. True wooden carousels have not been built for decades. They have been replaced with pre-molded fiberglass animals displayed on uninspired, mass-produced machines. Great master carvers--like Cernigliaro, Illions, Looff, Dentzel, Zalar, and the Muller brothers--are long gone. Most of the old carousels have been destroyed by fire, neglect, or damaged beyond repair by severe handling. Oftentimes, a carousel is dismantled and the animals and artwork, which command huge prices with collectors, are individually auctioned off, negating the possibility that an authentic carousel can ever be completely restored to its once grand and magical perfection.

But none of this deters Kevin. Through his extensive research, he believes he may have finally located a surviving and intact but forgotten carousel.

His search will bring him to a small Midwest town, just a dot on a map, where a circle of new friends and an enigmatic stranger on an unusual quest of his own will slowly reveal to Kevin what he truly must restore: his own heart.