Before We Were Yours

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She is the 10-year-old daughter of Allison and a friend to Avery – who would always come around to chat and play with her.

Allison is a senior sibling to Avery and has four children; triplet boys, and a girl Courtney about her 10th year. Allison and Avery share a close sisterly bond as the former sees the latter as a good distraction from raising a home full of kids. The events these two have weathered make me marvel. This is what's possible when love is real and strong, when people are devoted to one another, when they'll sacrifice anything to be together. This is what I want for myself, but I sometimes wonder if it's possible for our modern generation. We're so distracted, so... busy. There she finds a phone number from a certain Trent Turner living on Edisto Island who may know something about her grandmother’s past. For the Stafford family, reputation is everything , and part of their reputation involves the uniform respectability of every member of the family—even those who just marry into it. In fact, Avery initially struggles to conceive of a scandal more serious than the possibility of lower-class relatives threatening to step into the spotlight. Avery recounts her mother Honeybee ’s story of meeting Wells Stafford (Avery’s father), saying that “When she learned that [Wells] was a Stafford, she set her cap.” This highlights the fact that many people desire to be a Stafford—Honeybee resolves to marry Wells simply for his family name, even before she knows him personally. However, Avery believes they must have “woodpile relatives”—in other words, distant relatives that belong to the lower classes—after learning that there is someone named “Queenie” that Judy doesn’t want her to know about. Avery’s concern highlights just how distant her upper-class family is from the lower classes, and their opinion of poverty as somehow scandalous and shameful, something that would threaten their family’s reputation. Now, I look at my dad and think, How can you not want it, Avery? This is what he’s worked for all his life. What generations of Staffords have strived for since the revolutionary war, for heaven’s sake. Our family has always held fast to the guiding rope of public service. Daddy is no exception. Since graduating from West Point and serving as an Army aviator before I was born, he has upheld the family name with dignity and determination.

Wingate insists on including a modern-day story about some rich federal prosecutor “falling out of love” with her rich fiancé and “falling in love” with someone less titled and entitled. I put these phrases in quotes because the character in question, Avery, has no passion, no feelings for either men, and the idea of her being in love with anyone is frankly laughable. This is a result of Wingate's terrible, cardboard characters that have no life in them. This was also a completely pointless subplot that had no business being in the book and added absolutely nothing to the story. Mr. Sevier is a goodhearted wealthy composer. His wife, Mrs. Sevier, wasn’t able to have a baby (losing several in childbirth) so she’s more than happy with the fact that she finally has children to care for. At the TCHS, each of the children face abuse, neglect, and malnourishment. Her sister, Camellia, Rill's sister closest in age to her, is raped by one of the workers named Mr. Riggs. Shortly afterwards, she disappears, and Miss Tann tells Rill that she had never existed in the first place. Grieving the loss of her sister, Rill has no choice but to watch as each of her younger siblings are adopted by wealthy families and separated from her.

She is the sister of Trent Turner Sr. Both kids are abducted and taken to Memphis orphanage home while they are walking by the roadside – and probably heading home. This book spans generations, alternating between present-day and the past. The "past" story is narrated by the oldest Foss sibling, Rill (aka May). Avery Stafford, a former federal prosecutor and the daughter of a prominent Senator, tells the present-day story. Gradually, the two storylines intersect and the connection comes to light. Camellia is Rill’s junior sister, ten years old at the time of their kidnap. She is strong, resilient, and stands up for what is right. At Memphis camp, Camellia is taken away and remains missing for her stubbornness and uncooperativeness. Rumor has it she is murdered and thrown away by the roadside. Many families have been touched in some way by adoption and foster care. Is adoption or foster care in your family history? If so, how did that affect your thoughts about the journey of the Foss children and about Avery’s excavation of her family history?What symbolism do you see in the picture of the sisters on the wall? How do you think the sisters felt during their Sisters Days? Do you have sisters you are close to or sister-friends you spend time with? What does that bond mean to you? Lighting candles tonight on Valentines Day ....not for us .....but with thoughts of all the people who this devastating news in Florida day are hurting beyond anything I can imagine. She is, in fact, one of the three cruel women who run the TCHS, together with Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Pulnik.

The woman’s ears hear but cannot grasp. All slips in and slips away. It is as if she is attempting to catch the tide, and it drains through her clenched fingers, and finally she floats out along with it. Secretly, I’m clinging by all ten fingernails to the best-case scenario. The enemies will be vanquished on both fronts—political and medical. My father will be cured by the combination of the surgery that brought him home from the summer congressional session early and the chemo pump he must wear strapped to his leg every three weeks. My move home to Aiken will be temporary. Was the cover a factor in your bookclub’s decision to read Before We Were Yours? What reaction did you have to the cover and title? Georgia Tann did indeed facilitate the adoptions of children from the 1920's through the 1950's. Many of the children were not orphans. Many had loving parents who wanted tonraise them. The children were literally kidnapped in broad daylight and no matter how birth parents tried to fight in court, they were not allowed to win. The babies weren't given proper food or medical care. They were to weak and dehydrated to cry. They were tied to beds, and chairs, they were beaten, held under the bath water, and were molested. It was a house of horrors. In the end Georgia Tann died of cancer before before she could be forced to answer charges.This is the type of story that raises awareness and will leave you feeling outraged. It was emotional, inspiring and heartfelt. I was completely lost in the plight of the Foss children, while I was heartbroken by the absolute injustice of it all. Silas is the kid tasked by Zede to stay with and protect the Rill and her siblings. He does his best trying to keep them safe, but things go out of hand when the strangers come demanding he gives them the hiding place of the children. Rill eventually comes out willing, forcing her other siblings out the moment she hears of one of the men sound like an officer of the law. Nothing takes you from thirty years old to thirteen faster than your mother's voice rebounding up the stairs like a tennis ball after a forehand slice. pg. 21

The story begins in 1939, where a young woman, Christine, has given birth to a stillborn child. The doctor advises her of an adoption agency in Memphis.

Rill Foss is a twelve-year-old girl, the oldest of the five children of Queenie and Briny, only one of whom is a boy. In the present day in Aiken, South Carolina, Avery Stafford, has returned home to assist her father with a health issue. While home she is approached by an elderly woman named May who takes her bracelet. When she meets with the woman, questions arise. Avery goes on a quest to learn the truth and to find out what connection this woman, May, has with her family.