Don't you ever
Subtitle: my mother and her secret son
By: Mary Carter Bishop
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 247
ISBN-13: 9780062400734
Copyright date: 2018
Subjects: Family secrets; Patients; Brothers and sisters; Family; Acromegaly; Biography
Description: 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.
Table of contents: title: Part I: Two funerals. Losing the brother I hardly knew ; Losing the mother I thought I knew; title: Part II: The parents who raised me. My mother: gentle hands and foul moods ; My father: joy, wonder, and self-hate; title: Part III: Our world. The kingdom of the rich ; The people in the big house; title: Part IV: The lie. Original shame ; On her own ; Polly and Roy ; Freaky little bastard ; Truth at the kitchen stove; title: Part V: Finding and losing Ronnie. I walk into his barbershop ; We get acquainted ; What was wrong ; Trying to help ; Losses, gains, losses; title: Part VI: Learning still. Unearthing Ronnie ; Our family shrivels; title: Part VII: A finer sifting. I draw closer ; Walking with them.