Title: Once You Were Mine
Author: Elizabeth Langston
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Genre: General Fiction, Womens Fiction
Release Date: 11th February 2025
BLURB
A genealogy search reveals heartrending connections between friends as it brings to light one woman’s traumatic past as a teenage mother in the 1960s.
In a quiet North Carolina town in 1968, a seventeen-year-old girl’s life is forever changed when a summer romance leads to an unplanned pregnancy. She is sent to an abusive “maternity home,” where she is shamed and deceived into signing adoption papers.
In the present day, Allison Garrett volunteers as a “search angel,” using DNA tests to help strangers locate lost relatives. But the family tree she finds most compelling is that of her own mother, who was abandoned as a baby. As Allison puts the pieces together, they reveal much more than her mother’s origins—and threaten to create further divisions in her tight-knit community.
When a family is separated by devastating circumstances, is it possible for them to heal the pain of the past and make up for lost time?
REVIEW
It was the cover that first caught my eye with the child’s toy carousel and the book title of Once You Were Mine hinted at a loss of a child and then when I read the blurb and discovered that part of the story takes place at a mother & baby home in England along with the DNA ancestry search aspect, I knew I wanted to read it. The weird thing is I’ve read book about mother & baby homes but most have them were based in Ireland and those are the ones you immediately think of, sadly these institutions existed all over the world.
The book begins with a young girl, Molly who is looking forward to Christmas with her family. She’s determined to enjoy it as soon she will have to leave home for a place of uncertainty, a mother & baby home. Then suddenly she is informed she is to leave for the home the next day, she must pack the items on the list she has been provided, and be ready to leave early the next morning so the neighbours don’t see.
After a 'summer fling' Molly finds herself pregnant. At first, she naively thinks she may be able to keep her baby, with the help of her parents. They love all the babies her sister in laws continually produce and are always supportive during their pregnancies and dote on their grandchildren. Molly understands her situation isn’t ideal but its not as if she did it purposefully. She had been caring for her grandmother, a big job for a girl Mollys age that her parents decided she was capable of. It was whilst there she met the young man, Galen who brought books to her grandmother. Galen starts bringing books he thinks Molly will like. They end up bonding over a love of reading, they then begin dating and one thing leads to another, ending up with Molly becoming pregnant. Molly’s parents meet up with Galens parents. With the full backing of his parents Galen is unwilling to marry Molly and raise the baby with her. In fact, his mother puts all the blame for the pregnancy on Molly, saying she seduced her son. To say the meeting of the families doesn’t go well is an understatement. The conclusion is the baby is Molly & her parent’s problem to deal with.
Molly’s parents decide she should disappear to a mother & baby home, to avoid stares and whispers and the shame the neighbours would bestow on the family. Molly will stay there continue her school work, have the baby there, and give it up for adoption.
She isn't asked what her feelings or opinion are is basically dumped on the doorstep of the home. The woman who runs the home is a strict, rather nasty woman who reels out a list ofe rules that must be followed. Molly will also work whilst at the home to earn the keep of herself and her baby when it arrives. Molly is stripped of her personal possessions as well as her name. She is to be called Eve whilst at the home. One of the most important rules no one should know your real name! another resident at the home, Miriam, takes Molly/Eve under her wing and they make the best of a bad situation. They form a strong friendship, sometimes rebellious as they reveal their real names to each other. It is Miriam, real name Gwen and her family that help Molly/Eve to rebuild her life after the home. Years later the women carry a kind of guilt at having to give up their babies. The women do build lives for themselves but they never ever forget what they have had taken from them, and they commemorate the birth of their babies every year. Life moves on for them both.
Years late Allison does a DNA test and sends it to an ancestry site, she wants to learn more about her family as her mother was abandoned as a baby. Her childhood best friend Bree, decides to do a test be a supportive friend and do the whole “journey” together thinking it might be fun. When the results come in it’s a shock to both Allison & Bree to find out they are cousins!! Allison is more experienced with the process as she is a search angel for a site so she takes the news better than Bree. Instead of bringing them closer it begins to drive a wedge between the two previously best friends. At first Allisons mother doesn’t want to know anything at all, in her mind she was abandoned on a doorstep as a child and she doesn’t really wish to find her parents. Her parents are the couple that adopted her and brought her up. It’s a bigger shock for Bree’s father, Everett when it is revealed who his father is. He is interested in tracing his mother and wants a relationship with his sister Heather and niece Allison. Its almost as if Bree is a little jealous of Allison, she’s at a bit of a stalemate with her business so life isn’t as plain sailing for her at the time.
The story tells of the angst the revelation causes everyone involved, including the birth parents when they are contacted. There’s resentment in both cases. Molly resents the fact her mother didn’t turn up for the birth of her babies which was horrific, with the nurses being openly hostile towards her as she is “one of those girls” from the home. The one person Molly can rely on a little is her Aunt Trudy, although she is limited to what she can do as Mollys parents withhold information from her.
I felt like reaching into the book and hugging Molly/Eve, her family literally abandon her, in a strange, hostile place. Molly has guilt at the shame she has brought on her parents and the financial burden of paying for the home, although she later finds out that her college fund money has been used so she has paid to be treat horribly herself. Molly’s life could have really spiralled badly had it not been for the friendship of the slightly older Gwen/Miriam and her family contacts. I don’t blame Molly for not returning to her family home to find a job as her father expects. Gwen being a bit older seemed more confident, wiser and “life smart” than Molly and Gwen had the support of her mother and stepfather as well as the fact she had a good job and her own money too.
I was annoyed with Galen, he was very passive and seemed uncaring at times. He easily went along with his parents wishes to literally abandon Molly. He also went along with another large lie for his parents.
To be honest I was disgusted with Molly’s parents, Galen’s parents, Mrs Mitchell the manager of the mother and baby home and the nurses that were present at the birth of Molly’s babies. Aunt Trudy insisted she did her best, but did she? Personally, I think she could have done more but she didn’t want to risk her relationship with Molly’s parents anymore than she was doing.
Though Molly went through a traumatising experience I loved that she rebuilt her life and I think she ended up with a better husband than Galen would ever have been. Galen however ran away to the army and then gave up pursuing his dream future, settling for running the family business as his parents wanted. Perhaps giving up his dream future was a form of punishment.
My immediate thoughts were that I really enjoyed reading the book, it certainly kept me hooked and guessing about how everyone was related. It felt like a true story and was so believable. All the responsibility, the shame and consequences of an unplanned pregnancy falling onto the shoulders of Molly. Even year later she is still reminded by those around her of her dirty little secret. Whereas Galen simply walks away, able to continue his life with no interruptions, free to continue his life however he wishes.
Summing up this is an emotive story about a chain of events that didn’t happen all that long ago. One innocent but reckless act triggers what one family regards as disaster. Their reaction triggers a whole chain of events and repercussions are felt many years later!
Then when a younger generation fascinated by ancestry does a DNA it stirs up family histories that were never meant to be revealed shining light on those long buried secrets and lies.
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