Twenty-five-year-old Diedre McAlister’s mother is dying. “Find yourself. Find your truth. Just don’t expect it to be what you thought it would be,” her mother tells her, pressing into her hand an old, yellowing photograph of a woman twirling around, holding the hands of a young girl. Diedre begins her journey to find the meaning behind her mother’s message, sensing that something is not right, and that she may be very dismayed to find what it is she’s been sent to find.
Her first clue comes when she finds her birth certificate in an old cigar box, left on purpose for her to find. Her name and birth date were correct, but as she looked more closely, she discovers that on the line where her father’s name should be, it reads unknown.
So that’s why her father has never been affectionate with her. Her mother had an affair and he’s not really her father after all. Maybe she reminds him too much of the other man. Pieces start to fall into place as Diedre thinks back on her childhood.
Next in the box is a letter from her much older sister Amber, who has been gone from home a long time. Amber seemed to know all about baby Diedre and didn’t condemn their mother for having an affair. In the next letter, Amber mentions being hospitalized, and would be released after a five year stay. Hospitalized for what? And five years? That’s a terribly long time.
So many things Diedre had never been told! She looks in the box again, hoping for another clue, but that is all she is to be given. A conversation with her “father” does nothing to ease her confusion.
She decides to see if she can find the truth about Amber, and does end up locating her. It’s a bittersweet reunion, full of heartache and joy, and a resolution to the question of “why?” that Diedre never expected.
I do warn you that there are some difficult themes in this book, but they aren’t portrayed graphically. Instead the focus is on the joy of discovery. I found the book very worth my time.
(This book was published in 2001 by Word Publishing.)
