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Recounting the trauma of childhood deprivations, this memoir shows a maturation process that aided its author in later life, owing largely, she believes, to God’s care and intervention. Born in a fractured family in 1932, the little girl was assigned to an orphanage in Memphis—the Tennessee Children’s Home Society (TCHS)—after her mother was falsely accused of a crime. The TCHS was operated by notorious child-trafficker Georgia Tann. Hope wound up in Texas, supplied to a woman who wanted a playmate for her son. Gradually, Hope began to grasp the extent of her victimization as a young child and to seek information regarding her birth parents, sibling, half-siblings and other known relatives. Through a religious experience, she was able to love and understand her then deceased parents and even forgive Tann for her perfidies.
Hope writes with sensitivity and displays an accurate memory of the events of her life. She records many occurrences by specific date while keeping some family names anonymous. Through her diligent research based on her work in the court system and also as the manager of a funeral home, she became quite expert at tracing her kinfolk and also at uncovering further evidence of the cruel practices of the TCHS, which, she reports, was closed down by the state of Tennessee in 1950. A newspaper article about her time at the orphanage supports her personal recollections. Her religious experiences are recounted with appropriate fervor, beginning with a personal revelation and bolstered with scriptural quotations. After the difficult years of her early life and her long search for clues to her past, she is able to offer a positive view of her experiences as a guide and possible inspiration to others pursuing a similar quest.