I Must Have Wandered: An Adopted Air Force Daughter Recalls

By: Gambutti, Mary Ellen

Travel across the years in this compelling collage memoir composed of essays, vignettes, and an archive of letters and images. An infant girl's post-World War II abandonment at birth, and her closed adoption by a military couple one year later is the poignant framing for the author's deeply personal stories. In lyrical language, she renders her impressions of primal trauma and tangle of loss, separation, and privilege. Coming of age in the turbulent 1960s, this adopted Air Force intelligence officer's daughter struggles with identity bewilderment, anxiety, and the secrecy, demands of duty, and discipline of her father's military life. In her adult years, her need to know her truths surfaces. Without access to her original birth records or the internet, she launches the search for her birth mother. Decades later, on a parallel journey of self-discovery -- now with the benefit of DNA testing -- she learns to reconcile her heritage and her adopted life. (Second Edition)

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0CJ3WBJJZ
• ISBN13: 9798223634430
• Release Date: August 2023
• Publisher: Mary Ellen Gambutti
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"