Mary Ellen Gambutti

eBook, ePUB

I Must Have Wandered: An Adopted Air Force Daughter Recalls (eBook, ePUB)

Beschreibung

Travel across the years in this compelling collage memoir composed of essays, vignettes, and an archive of letters and images. An infant girl's post-World War II abandonment at birth, and her closed adoption by a military couple one year later is the poignant framing for the author's deeply personal stories. In lyrical language, she renders her impressions of primal trauma and tangle of loss, separation, and privilege. Coming of age in the turbulent 1960s, this adopted Air Force intelligence officer's daughter struggles with identity bewilderment, anxiety, and the secrecy, demands of duty, and discipline of her father's military life. In her adult years, her need to know her truths surfaces. Without access to her original birth records or the internet, she launches the search for her birth mother. Decades later, on a parallel journey of self-discovery -- now with the benefit of DNA testing -- she learns to reconcile her heritage and her adopted life. (Second Edition)

Technische Details

• Geräte: eReader
• mit Kopierschutz
• Größe: 14.06MB
• FamilySharing(5)

Barrierefreiheit

• Text-to-Speech

Autor

My earliest memories were formed from words and music. My first five months are mostly unaccounted for, but the couple who would adopt me sang and smiled, talked, and read to me. I studied Webster's Dictionary at bedtime from age eight and wrote personal poems. Reading, vocabulary, grammar, and spelling sustained my interest in school when Air Force transfers disrupted my elementary education. I let go of word-stringing: jottings, notes, lists, letters, essays, and poetry when at age fifty-eight I was stricken with a brain hemorrhage. While recovering at home, after months of hospital rehab, began online writing courses to suss the "why" and "how" of my life, beginning with the story of my stroke. I absorbed the memoirs of Natalie Goldberg, Annie Dillard, Brenda Miller, and many others, captivated by the words and meaning that poured from their souls. I practiced on my new laptop, typing with my formerly unfavored left hand, as I still do, taking stock of what has happened to me, as well as what I have made happen. Thus, writing memoirs is therapeutic, and life-affirming. I hope my words resonate with you.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Mary Ellen Gambutti
• Erscheinungstermin: 28. Juli 2023
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9798223986010
• Artikelnr.: 68522749