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Before We Were Yours
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Our September Book - Before We Were Yours
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This is the first Lisa Wingate book I have read. I thought she did a nice job bringing this story to light. It is just heartwrenching and so hard to understand how it could go on for so long. The author took a few fictional characters and told the story of so many children and families affected by Georgia Tann. Thousands of people and generations later have had their lives take a complete 360 with just one act of evil. I took to Rill's character so much. She is so young but yet so courageous and selfless. Her family is completely turned upside down literally overnight and without warning. It spirals into a series of events that changes their lives forever.
At times, I felt enraged, saddened, scared for the children, disgusted by such abuse. I guess the mother in me just wants to hold all these thousands of babies and just love them all. I will say that the story ends in a way that you begin to feel somewhat of closure and a bit nostalgic about the what ifs...
Sad but needed to be told in hopes that history does not repeat itself.
Good book.
Gisella wrote: "This is the first Lisa Wingate book I have read. I thought she did a nice job bringing this story to light. It is just heartwrenching and so hard to understand how it could go on for so long. The a..."I think stories like this are sad, but as you said, it's important that they are told so people can learn from the past and hopefully be better humans.
"Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.
Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.
Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong."