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I Must Have Wandered

An Adopted Air Force Daughter Recalls

Mary Ellen Gambutti

$47.95   $40.45

Paperback

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English
Mary Ellen Gambutti
30 August 2023
Travel across the years in this collage memoir rendered in archival letters and images, lyrical vignettes, and poetry; a poignant framing of an infant girl's 1950s abandonment and closed domestic adoption by a military couple. Amid a tangle of primal loss and privilege; the separation, secrecy, discipline, and transience through the turbulent 1960s, an Air Force officer's adopted daughter struggles with identity bewilderment. At forty, the need to know her origins surfaces, and she begins searching for her original family. Decades later, on her parallel journey of DNA self-discovery, she reconciles her adopted life and gains the wealth of natural heritage. The second edition offers ample resources and a link to an expanded gallery.
By:  
Imprint:   Mary Ellen Gambutti
Dimensions:   Height: 229mm,  Width: 152mm,  Spine: 14mm
Weight:   358g
ISBN:   9798223634430
Pages:   240
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

"My earliest memories were formed from words and music. My first five months are mostly unaccounted for, but the couple who would adopt me sang and smiled, talked, and read to me. I studied Webster's Dictionary at bedtime from age eight and wrote personal poems. Reading, vocabulary, grammar, and spelling sustained my interest in school when Air Force transfers disrupted my elementary education. I let go of word-stringing: jottings, notes, lists, letters, essays, and poetry when at age fifty-eight I was stricken with a brain hemorrhage. While recovering at home, after months of hospital rehab, began online writing courses to suss the ""why"" and ""how"" of my life, beginning with the story of my stroke. I absorbed the memoirs of Natalie Goldberg, Annie Dillard, Brenda Miller, and many others, captivated by the words and meaning that poured from their souls. I practiced on my new laptop, typing with my formerly unfavored left hand, as I still do, taking stock of what has happened to me, as well as what I have made happen. Thus, writing memoirs is therapeutic, and life-affirming. I hope my words resonate with you."

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