You’ll Forget This Ever Happened
Book Feature - You’ll Forget This Ever Happened by Laura Engel
HBL Note: Sometimes I forget that things that seem like ancient history, foreign almost because they no longer fit into the world as I know it, actually occurred not that long ago. When I first heard about Laura’s heartbreaking memoir and I had to do a double-take. Wait, how old is this author? Surely nothing like this would’ve happened in this lifetime. Laura went to a home for unwed mothers after finding herself pregnant out of wedlock at the age of 17. They took her child, causing unspeakable trauma, and yet Laura is noted for her cheerful demeanor and bright outlook. Sure, I’ve read a number of stories like this, anyone remotely interested in history knows these kinds of horrors took place. But personally I’d only read such stories in historical fiction, which makes it one more step removed from reality. Scroll down to read more about Laura L. Engel’s memoir.
Book Feature - You’ll Forget This Ever Happened by Laura Engel
Book Feature - You’ll Forget This Ever Happened by Laura Engel
From the publisher:
Mississippi, 1967. It’s the Summer of Love, yet unwed mothers’ maternity homes are flourishing, secret closed adoptions are routine, and many young women still have no voice.
In You’ll Forget This Ever Happened, Laura Engel takes us back to the Deep South during the turbulent 1960s to explore the oppression of young women who have committed the socially unacceptable crime of becoming pregnant without a ring on their finger. After being forced to give up her newborn son for adoption, Engel lives inside a fortress of silent shame for fifty years—but when her secret son finds her and her safe world is cracked open, those walls crumble.
Are you still a mother even if you have not raised your child? Can the mother/child bond survive years of separation? How deep is the damage caused by buried family secrets and shame? Engel asks herself these and many other questions as she becomes acquainted with the son she never knew, and seeks the acceptance and forgiveness she has long denied herself. Full of both aching sadness and soaring joy, You’ll Forget This Ever Happened is a shocking exposé of a shameful part of our country’s recent past—and a poignant tale of a mother’s enduring love.
Book Feature - You’ll Forget This Ever Happened by Laura Engel
