OLIVE BRANCH, Miss. - In her new historical novel, "Just Passing Through," author Margaret Tutor shares a story of changed lives and healed hearts.


The story introduces readers to the Ward family, who traveled from cotton field to cotton field, living out of their covered wagon until they became sharecroppers in Dover, Ark., in 1926. There, they encountered Mrs. Cartwright and her children, who were left to fend for themselves while Mr. Cartwright took an extended trip to New Orleans. The Wards took the Cartwrights under their wings, angering Mr. Cartwright when he returned to see them thriving without him.


Walter Cartwright was a cruel-hearted man, whose sons, Robert and Clanton, never knew any other way of living but their father's way. Will their father's abandonment and the kindness of the Wards help them see the world as decent and good? Tutor others this tale of changed and healed lives and hearts in her new novel, "Just Passing Through."