For many people, adoption is a short story: a woman relinquishes her parental rights, the child goes to another family, and that's the end of it. Except the story never really ends there but continues to affect everyone involved for all the years to come.
Others' reluctance to talk about such a private matter can be infuriating for adoptees, adopted parents, and birth parents who hope for some form of reconciliation. Their search for the truth can run into powerful roadblocks. In many states, adoptees are even denied access to their original birth certificates.
Driven by her personal story of love and loss, Susan E. Anthony advocated for adoptee birth certificate access and supported many birth parents as they started on the road toward reunion.
Susan's devotion to this cause was rooted in her own search for Emily, a daughter she put up for adoption in a time when such things were kept secret. Her remarkable search for the truth behind her daughter's adoption and life is one you have to read to believe. In The Girl in the Shadows!, Susan gives voice both to the many unwed mothers silenced by society and to their lost children.
About the Author: Susan E. Anthony dedicated her life to service. She worked as the marketing director of the Sisters of Charity Health Care System and the education and training coordinator of the Catholic Health Initiative.
Anthony was both a volunteer and board member for Soteni International, which delivers health services to AIDS victims in Kenya. She was equally involved in her local community, helping to pass an Ohio law that gives adopted Ohioans access to their birth certificates. She also founded the Birthparent Group, which gives birth parents support and a caring community.
Anthony helped as many people as she could, both through these organizations and through the Internet. She was a solid rock for many searching for their birth parents or children.
Anthony died of pancreatic cancer before she could finish her book. Her husband, Larry, and daughter, Kristen, completed it for her.
