her SECRET: memoir of a "Late Discovered Adoptee"
Author: Nora Murchada
This memoir was born out of the desire to tell the story of my personal journey that unfolded in a parked car from a phone conversation back in August, 2009 at the age of 54. It was then that I discovered my entire life was a LIE. The universe wanted me to know the truth --- I was adopted by means of an arrangement before I was born which turned out to be off the books and sealed with a verbal promise and an envelope filled with cash. The Chapters will shed light on how that came to pass and what it was like growing up the daughter of a Holocaust Survivor. Instead of being read bedtime stories like "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", "Cinderella" and "The Princess and the Pea", my adoptive mother would tell me stories about Adolf Hitler's plan to eliminate the Jews in her homeland Germany and across Europe. I was told to be thankful for a warm bed to sleep in and a belly full of food. The terminology for people who learn about their adoption late in life is "Late Discovered Adoptee" or "LDA". I felt comfort in learning there were others out there like me who had to take the same journey in order to eventually feel whole again. I hope that the act of putting pen to paper will encourage other LDA's to embrace their past, move forward and live their lives to the fullest.