In Mama Left Me, author and educator Carol Ingram Moore explores the thorny emotional and psychological terrain traveled by children being raised by their grandparents and other relatives.
Told from multiple points of view, the story centers on the Walker family: Pearl, a successful artist who abandons her daughter; Natalie, the daughter left in the care of her grandmother; and Ellen, the retired schoolteacher charged with looking after Natalie.
Ellen and Natalie must find ways to reconcile themselves to the new reality thrust upon them by Pearl. Thankfully, Uncle Robert, church members, and many others stand by their side, ready and willing to help. As Ellen and Natalie throw themselves into loving and supporting each other and those in similar positions, Pearl searches for her own healing and growth.
A beautiful story that deals tenderly with everyone involved, Mama Left Me is an excellent resource for teachers, social workers, counselors, ministers, and anyone else called upon to shepherd young children through difficult issues of abandonment, loss, grief, or isolation.
About the Author: Carol Ingram Moore, MEd, retired from a successful career in community development, higher education, and social work to pursue her dream of becoming a writer.
She provided professional training in her home state of Virginia and across the country on issues surrounding grandparents raising grandchildren and child development. She served on state committees as an advocate for kinship care and as an expert on grandfamilies for Generations United, the organization that published her short story, An Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree.
Moore is also the author of a book of poetry entitled Mountain Moments. She is an artist and storyteller creating in the magical mists of the mountains of southwest Virginia.
