I Must Have Wandered

Travel in this captivating journey of self-discovery and triumph over adversity through a collage of vignettes, poetry, lyrical prose, letters, fragments, and photos in this poignant story of a post-WWII South Carolina infant girl's relinquishment and her adoption by an Air Force couple. Her 1950s childhood is marked by maternal severance and military family separations. She comes of age amid the heightened anxiety of the turbulent 1960s. The complexity of primal trauma, guilt, grief, and the effects of her father's intelligence officer's role; its culture of confidentiality, secrecy, and discipline, as well as his religious piety, lead her to a desire to learn her origins. With the help of adoptee advocates, the barrier to her sealed birth records yields, and she embarks on a quest for her natural mother. Decades later, DNA testing leads her to a greater wealth of family, and she is closer to reconciling with the loss and privilege of her adopted life. An inspirational must-read. (Bibliography and Resources).