A raw, often wry memoir of mothers, mysteries, and miracles.
Surrendered at birth in a closed adoption, Candi Byrne’s biology and ethnicity is a secret. The impending arrival of her first grandchild ignites an urgency to identify potential genetic time bombs and confirm her ancestry. Due to arcane privacy laws, Candi is repeatedly denied access to the one person who could provide that information—her biological mother.
After years of failed attempts, she resigns herself to never learning the truth about her roots; that is, until her ninety-year-old Aunt Delores has a vision and insists Candi resume efforts to find her birth family.
Candi is gobsmacked when an internet search she’s performed thousands of times before suddenly reveals her birth mother’s identity. Within hours, she ends up on the doorstep of her birth mother—a place she’s sworn never to visit.
After a series of guilt-driven interactions with “Those People,” as she refers to her maternal birth family, Candi terminates contact. Although the reunion proves disastrous, it opens her eyes to truths about her relationship with her adoptive mother, Delphine.
Though their relationship was difficult and contentious during Delphine’s life, a series of miraculous experiences after her death guides Candi home to herself—where, she learns, she has belonged all along.
“A poignant account of a resilient woman’s complex search for clues about her history.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“After so many stories about DNA revelations, we might think we know how the story will go—reunions, tears, gratitude, and balloons. Regifted explores the question: what if the ‘blood family’ isn’t a fit? Is it possible that your search full of tears and hope will only lead you back to yourself?”
—LINDA JOY MYERS, president of the National Association of Memoir Writers and author of Don’t Call Me Mother, Song of the Plains, and The Power of Memoir
“Irreverent, cheeky, conflicted, and ultimately integrated, caring, and compassionate, Candi Byrne takes the reader on the inner and outer journey of finding her birth family and claiming her full womanhood from the influences of two mothers.”
—CHRISTINA BALDWIN, author of Life’s Companion and Storycatcher