Finding Home

By Ellen Waldron Richards

In this memoir, the author tells the story of her childhood and youth in a changing world. Born in 1934, she comes to adolescence in the early postwar years. Trying to escape from family-related difficulties, and lured by her vision of a life of freedom, she leaves her Ohio home at the age of 16, bound for the University of Chicago and its experimental undergraduate program.She finds fine teachers, good friends, and cultural opportunities. But, socially inexperienced and carrying heavy emotional baggage, she struggles with anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Problems are magnified when, two years later, she finishes the undergraduate program, moves from dormitory housing, and finds herself adrift. After several difficult years, soon to turn 21, she encounters two situations that turn her world upside down: one, the unexpected and ill-comprehended realization that she has strong gay inclinations; the other, a major tragedy involving the young man she was to marry that spring. Living in Boston, where circumstances have brought her, she begins to rebuild her life. In the final chapters of this account, the author reflects on her early life from the perspective of a much later time, and in the context of a changed and more supportive social situation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0970372515
• ISBN13: 9780970372512
• Release Date: January 2015
• Publisher: Pothole Press
• Length: 303 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"