A Mother's Touch: The Tiffany Callo Story

by Jay Mathews

Book Overview

An account of Tiffany Callo's fight to keep her baby describes how the nineteen-year-old victim of cerebral palsy gave birth a healthy baby boy, only to have him taken away from her and her... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805017143
• ISBN13: 9780805017144
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 265 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Depressing Book - But Important And Well Worth Reading

I never cried as hard as I did when I finished reading this book. This is highly recommended for anyone interested in or doing research about the child protective system in the state of California. Read this along with Andrew Bridge's autobiography 'Hope's Boy' if you're looking for a first-person account of what happens to kids when they're taken away from their mothers by the state. The San Jose Mercury News had an update to the Tiffany Callo story on December 28, 2007. Callo's third child was recently taken away from her by the state, for the same reasons that she lost custody of her sons almost twenty years ago. She is a woman in a wheelchair who depends on others for help, and as a result, in the eyes of the state, this makes her unable to take care of a child. The irony is that if Callo were middle-class and not dependent on the state for help, it would be far more difficult for the state to take her child away from her. People in far worse physical condition than Callo have successfully raised their own children, without help or meddling from the government. In another autobiography, 'The Last Dance But Not the Last Song,' author, gospel singer and motivational speaker Renee Bondi tells her true story of being completely paralyzed but still able to give birth and raise her son, and to become a functioning member of society. There are differences. Bondi was college-educated and surrounded by an intact community of family, co-workers and church friends at the time she became paralyzed in a freak accident. Callo has none of the same social supports in place. Same state (California), different worlds.