That's What Friends Are For by Wade Rouse

The lives of four aging gay friends are upended when Teddy's estranged sister lands on their doorstep with a dramatic granddaughter in tow, causing turmoil in their tight-knit Palm Springs community and unwittingly bringing secrets to light. Inspired by TV's The Golden Girls, Viola Shipman's novel about acceptance, friendship, and love later in life, is perfect for readers of Steven Rowley.

Theodore Hoffman suffers no fools. He has created a life on his own terms, escaping the hatred in his small Midwestern hometown and operating a successful vintage clothing store in the desert oasis of Palm Springs, California, which he has run for decades. Now in his sixties, Teddy lives with his three best friends – Ron, Barry and Sidney – who have pooled their retirement income so they can live independently in a fabulous mid-century masterpiece in Palm Springs, rely on one another and can, when it's time, afford long-term care without having to leave their home. The four friends are minor celebrities in the desert community, known as “The Golden Gays,” for having the personality traits of TV's Golden Girls--Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sofia--but also their popular weekly drag version of the show at a local nightclub.

When Teddy's estranged sister, Trudy (with whom he hasn’t spoken for decades) shows up on his doorstep he is stunned to see her, even more so when she introduces her 17-year-old granddaughter – whom he’s never met. Trudy announces that her husband has died suddenly and her children are too busy to deal with her grief (or as Teddy learns, cannot deal with their mother), Against his better judgment – and with the encouragement of the ever-sunny Ron – Teddy agrees to let them stay, and has to deal not only with a teen who wants nothing to do with a bunch of “old queens” or their life in “heaven’s waiting room,” but also confront his painful family history and his own grief: the death of his own husband decades ago and his family's total lack of interest in him, his life, or his loss.

But perhaps living with a larger than life cast of characters is just what Trudy and her granddaughter need, and perhaps Teddy needs a new perspective on his life. A story of what it’s like to live your life feeling as if you’re “wrong”, finding family in the most trying of times and living a life of unconditional love: Love without conditions. As Dorothy always said, “The bottom line is, in life, sometimes good things happen, sometimes bad things happen. But honey, if you don’t take a chance, nothing happens.”