Keeping Lucy

The heartbreaking and uplifting story, inspired by true events, of how far one mother must go to protect her daughter.

Dover, Massachusetts, 1969. Ginny Richardson's heart was torn open when her baby girl, Lucy, born with Down Syndrome, was taken from her. Under pressure from his powerful family, her husband, Ab, sent Lucy away to Willowridge, a special school for the “feeble-minded." Ab tried to convince Ginny it was for the best. That they should grieve for their daughter as though she were dead. That they should try to move on.

But two years later, when Ginny's best friend, Marsha, shows her a series of articles exposing Willowridge as a hell-on-earth--its squalid hallways filled with neglected children--she knows she can't leave her daughter there. With Ginny's six-year-old son in tow, Ginny and Marsha drive to the school to see Lucy for themselves. What they find sets their course on a heart-racing journey across state lines—turning Ginny into a fugitive.

For the first time, Ginny must test her own strength and face the world head-on as she fights Ab and his domineering father for the right to keep Lucy. Racing from Massachusetts to the beaches of Atlantic City, through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to a roadside mermaid show in Florida, Keeping Lucy is a searing portrait of just how far a mother’s love can take her.

Based on incredible true events, Keeping Lucy is the searing, heartfelt, and breathtaking story of just how far a mother’s love can take her.

My Review

This is the first book I have read by this author. You can bet that it won't be the last one. I could not stop reading this book. In fact, I started and finished it in one afternoon.

Ginny and Marsha were like the original Thelma and Louise. I loved these two women. Marsha was the strong, solid shoulder that Ginny needed. If not for her, Ginny would have lost her battle against her husband and his family and maybe never seen Lucy again. Speaking of Lucy, she really blossomed into a beautiful butterfly by the end of the story. Yes, sweet Lucy the moon is yours.

I did not know this book was based around true events. It makes this story that more intriguing and sad at the same time. Even today, people judge others with a disability. I have a friend that has CP and you would never know that it affects her. She could still play when we were younger and now she is married. Keeping Lucy will tug at your heart strings and maybe having you shed a few tears of happiness in the process.