Don't you ever : my mother and her secret son /
Bishop, Mary Carter,
Don't you ever : my mother and her secret son / Mary Carter Bishop. - First edition. - viii, 247 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Part I: Two funerals. Losing the brother I hardly knew ; Losing the mother I thought I knew -- Part II: The parents who raised me. My mother: gentle hands and foul moods ; My father: joy, wonder, and self-hate -- Part III: Our world. The kingdom of the rich ; The people in the big house -- Part IV: The lie. Original shame ; On her own ; Polly and Roy ; Freaky little bastard ; Truth at the kitchen stove -- Part V: Finding and losing Ronnie. I walk into his barbershop ; We get acquainted ; What was wrong ; Trying to help ; Losses, gains, losses -- Part VI: Learning still. Unearthing Ronnie ; Our family shrivels -- Part VII: A finer sifting. I draw closer ; Walking with them.
While applying for a passport as an adult, Mary Carter Bishop made a shocking discovery: she had a secret half brother. Her mother told Mary Carter that the abandoned by was a "youthful mistake" from an encounter with a married man. Nine years later, Mary Carter tracked Ronnie down at the barbershop where he worked and found a near-broken man -- someone kind and happy to meet her, but someone deeply and irreversibly damaged by a life of neglect and abuse at the hands of an uncaring system. He was also disfigured due to a rare condition that would eventually kill him. Digging deep into her family's lives for understanding, Mary Carter unfolds a sweeping narrative of religious intolerance, poverty, fear, ambition, class, and social expectations. A riveting memoir about a family haunted by a shameful secret, Don't You Ever is a powerful story of a woman's search for her long-hidden sibling and of the factors that profoundly impact our individual destinies."--Adapted from book jacket.
9780062400734 0062400738
Bishop, Mary Carter--Family.
Brothers and sisters--United States--Biography.
Family secrets.
Acromegaly--Patients--Biography.
Biographies.
Autobiographies.
Don't you ever : my mother and her secret son / Mary Carter Bishop. - First edition. - viii, 247 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Part I: Two funerals. Losing the brother I hardly knew ; Losing the mother I thought I knew -- Part II: The parents who raised me. My mother: gentle hands and foul moods ; My father: joy, wonder, and self-hate -- Part III: Our world. The kingdom of the rich ; The people in the big house -- Part IV: The lie. Original shame ; On her own ; Polly and Roy ; Freaky little bastard ; Truth at the kitchen stove -- Part V: Finding and losing Ronnie. I walk into his barbershop ; We get acquainted ; What was wrong ; Trying to help ; Losses, gains, losses -- Part VI: Learning still. Unearthing Ronnie ; Our family shrivels -- Part VII: A finer sifting. I draw closer ; Walking with them.
While applying for a passport as an adult, Mary Carter Bishop made a shocking discovery: she had a secret half brother. Her mother told Mary Carter that the abandoned by was a "youthful mistake" from an encounter with a married man. Nine years later, Mary Carter tracked Ronnie down at the barbershop where he worked and found a near-broken man -- someone kind and happy to meet her, but someone deeply and irreversibly damaged by a life of neglect and abuse at the hands of an uncaring system. He was also disfigured due to a rare condition that would eventually kill him. Digging deep into her family's lives for understanding, Mary Carter unfolds a sweeping narrative of religious intolerance, poverty, fear, ambition, class, and social expectations. A riveting memoir about a family haunted by a shameful secret, Don't You Ever is a powerful story of a woman's search for her long-hidden sibling and of the factors that profoundly impact our individual destinies."--Adapted from book jacket.
9780062400734 0062400738
Bishop, Mary Carter--Family.
Brothers and sisters--United States--Biography.
Family secrets.
Acromegaly--Patients--Biography.
Biographies.
Autobiographies.