âIâll just pop in to say hi,â Eliza said as they walked down the hospital corridor. âThen youâre on your own.â
April wasnât sure what she would say, but her nervousness fled when they entered the room, and she saw Maddie. The woman had aged, as Eliza had said. Her hair was gray and thin, her cheeks hollow, her skin wrinkled and parchmentlike. But Maddieâs eyes were bright, and they seemed to light up when she saw April. One side of her mouth rose up in a smile and garbled sounds came out.
âHi, Maddie,â April said softly. How could she have been worried about seeing her foster mother again?
She leaned over and gathered the older woman into a hug, squeezing gently. âIâve missed you so much,â she said, blinking back tears. It was true, April realized. She had missed Maddie. And Eliza and Jo. Only now that she was back could she admit it to herself.
It was good to be home.
Dear Reader,
Family has always been important to me. I was lucky enough to know my great-grandparents and grandparents. I âknowâ earlier generations through family history research. I even have one great-aunt in good health at age 104. The memories, family stories and feeling of connection are all precious.
How difficult it would be for someone to not have a single idea of her background. What if a woman had no identity except what was given her by Social Services? April is just such a person. All the time she was growing up in foster care, she tried to find a clue to where she came from, who her people were. But she ran into brick walls and unresponsive bureaucrats.
A dozen years later sheâs returning to her childhood home, and another opportunity to restart the search--this time with the help of a man who loves to unravel mysteries. But there are no guarantees.
So maybe instead of searching the past for her family, April has to realize she has a family with the foster sister and foster mother who had once meant so much to her. And that she can make her own family present and futureâif she can convince the man she loves to make that future with her.
To you who are blessed with family, cherish them. For those who donât know your past, may you be able to accept the present and make your own future full of love and family ties, however you care to make them.
Happy reading!
Barbara
To Kay Polk, friend, fellow genealogist and family historian.
Letâs find those connections!
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
APRIL JEFFRIES HUNG UP the phone and crawled back into bed. She was more miserable than sheâd ever felt in her life. Pulling the covers up to her ears, she closed her eyes, and tried to ignore her aching body and focus instead on the phone conversation sheâd just had.
What a shock to hear from Eliza Shaw! They had been closer than sisters while growing up as foster children in the small Mississippi town of Maraville. Separated when they were teenagers, theyâd had no contact in twelve years. April had put her childhood memories in storageâthe good and the badâand left the United States seven years ago to embark on a new life in Paris.
Sheâd thought she had it all back then, a wonderful husband, promising career, glamorous lifestyle.
One out of three wasnât bad. Sheâd made it to the top in an increasingly competitive field. A well-known model who commanded high fees to showcase the latest creations of the worldâs leading designers, April had to partially credit her playboy second husband, Jean-Paul Sartain, for her success. At least heâd done her some good before heâd broken her heart by turning to another woman.
Restless, she pushed away the covers, wishing someone was around to fix her some hot soup. But her friends all thought she was still in Marrakech. She should have called someone when she got back to Paris a couple of days ago.
But there was no way she was going to feel sorry for herself, not when Eliza had called her. There had been several messages on her answering machine when sheâd returned home, and at last theyâd actually talked to each other. The years had dropped away as if theyâd been together only yesterday.
April smiled despite feeling so ill. It had been wonderful to hear from her foster sister. Not that Elizaâs news had been good. Maddie Oglethorpe, their former foster mother, had suffered a stroke and was in the hospital. While her doctor was cautiously optimistic, Maddie was still at risk for a second stroke. And recovery would be a long process.
Eliza had urged April to return to her former hometown. Aprilâs initial inclination was to say no. Even under the best of circumstances, she had never envisioned herself returning to Maraville. Sheâd never felt she belonged there. But as Eliza kept talking, memories came rushing back. Maddie, Eliza and Jo, Maddieâs third foster child, were the only family April had ever known. Because of Joâs lies, the family tie theyâd tenuously shared had been broken. Now Eliza wanted them to reconnect.