Searching!

During my summer reading, I have noticed one theme moving through several of the books as well as in personal conversations. Characters, as well as people, are searching for clarity about their roots. They continually wonder, “Who am I? What was my parent’s real story? What were they worried about on a daily basis? Why were they moody at times?”

With the new advent of genealogical searches and databases such as Ancestry.com, many are looking for answers. Much has been buried or not discussed at all. The wise ones will interview their elders before they pass on to the next plane and see if they can get a handle on what actually happened in their loved ones’ lives.

In A Saint for the Summer by Marjory McGinn, Bronte’s father Angus asks her to visit him in Greece. They had been estranged, but she wants to support him as he ages and has accumulating health challenges. But he has a hidden agenda. He wants her to use her investigative journalism skills to help him find out what happened to his father (her grandfather) who was a Scottish Allied Forces soldier hiding out in the Greek mountains. He had missed his transport and a family temporarily took him before his death during WWII.

In Legacy of Mercy by Lynn Austin, Anna is a wealthy adopted socialite who wants to know the truth. She has found her maternal grandmother and she wants to know what really occurred in her mother’s life. As in many situations, she has been warned to leave the past alone, but she cannot and will not. She secretly makes trips around 1900’s Chicago in the bitter cold to find answers about her mother and stumbles upon the identity of her real father.

In Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson, Benny and Bryon, a sister and brother, are left a lengthy audiotape by their deceased mother. In slow detailed, increments, their mother tells them who she really is and gives them the circumstances that forced her to live as an alias. Her circuitous journey causes them to cleave together and eventually find their own personal paths and missions.

And I am now hallway through Summer on Sag Harbor by The View’s Sunny Hostin. Olivia has recently inherited a home on Sag Harbor from her godfather, Omar. But she has questions about her father and his family. She started asking the oldest person in the small village and again, she has been warned to leave the past alone. Yet, she continually digs because the story that her mother tells does not seem to add up. The missing pieces are causing confusion in her own life choices. I wonder what she will discover.

People hide the truth for multiple reasons. Some do it to feel powerful. Some do it because they are embarrassed about their circumstances such as a baby born out of wedlock, or a baby sired by a married person. Some think that they are being protective. And then there are the adoptive parents who adopt for many reasons as well. Regardless of the reasons, a child will search and search and some find answers, and some will grapple with the unknowingness for an entire lifetime.

Lynn M.
August 1, 2023