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joannaellis 's review for:
Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children's Home Society
by Judy Christie, Lisa Wingate
This follow-up book is great for fans of Lisa Wingate's previous book "Before We Were Yours". This is however a non-fiction account of families who have similar experiences that were addressed in the author's earlier book - surrounding adoptions facilitated by Georgia Tann as a part of the Tennessee Children's Home Society (TCHS). It centers on a group of (now adult) people who are gathering together for a reunion - to gather and tell their stories. Heartbreaking accounts of children stolen from their families, deception and corruption occurring in these adoptions breaks my heart. Having read the previous book I had hoped that the accounts were purely fictional, and as such possibly somewhat sensationalized. But after reading the retellings of real people's experiences I see that though Wingate's previous book was fiction, it was absolutely based in the true stories that took place in the TCHS.
As I read I asked myself if I had been placed for adoption through this situation would I want to search out the truth? How would I have reacted to finding a whole other family history that I had carried with me in my genetic makeup....? It made me really think about what makes us who we are? Is it the genetic makeup we come to earth with or the environment we are raised in?
I did enjoy reading the accounts of finding these people who had previously been adopted, and I'm grateful for them to have these experiences to link them to others like them. Finding a common bond, and to connect through hard experiences is a gift. The #1 thing I took away from this book is the importance of recording our own stories - whatever they are.
"This is the message Lisa emphasized throughout the weekend. "The saddest thing is when our stories die with us." she says. "People so often say to me, 'I wish we'd written the family stories down.'"
I will say, I enjoyed the story-telling aspect of the fictional accounts a little better....but in taking this in as a non-fiction account, I still enjoyed reading it.
As I read I asked myself if I had been placed for adoption through this situation would I want to search out the truth? How would I have reacted to finding a whole other family history that I had carried with me in my genetic makeup....? It made me really think about what makes us who we are? Is it the genetic makeup we come to earth with or the environment we are raised in?
I did enjoy reading the accounts of finding these people who had previously been adopted, and I'm grateful for them to have these experiences to link them to others like them. Finding a common bond, and to connect through hard experiences is a gift. The #1 thing I took away from this book is the importance of recording our own stories - whatever they are.
"This is the message Lisa emphasized throughout the weekend. "The saddest thing is when our stories die with us." she says. "People so often say to me, 'I wish we'd written the family stories down.'"
I will say, I enjoyed the story-telling aspect of the fictional accounts a little better....but in taking this in as a non-fiction account, I still enjoyed reading it.