The past belongs to everyone who was there. What do you remember? ADD YOUR STORY
“Perfect is boring.” Well, 1983 certainly wasn't boring for the Welch family. Somehow, between their handsome father’s mysterious death, their glamorous soap opera star mother’s cancer diagnosis, and a phalanx of lawyers intent on bankruptcy proceedings, the four Welch siblings managed to handle each new heartbreaking misfortune together. But all that changed with the death of their mother. While nineteen year-old Amanda was legally on her own, the three younger siblings—Liz, 16; Dan, 14 and Diana, 8—were each dispersed to a different set of family friends.
Told in the alternating voices of the four siblings, this memoir tells their poignant, harrowing story of growing up as lost souls, taking disastrous turns along the way, but eventually coming out right side up. The kids are not only all right; they're back together.
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While our sister is incommunicado, celebrating her birthday in Mexico with her husband, I thought it prudent to publish a slightly embarrassing photographic journey of a life filled with a whole lotta love, intelligence, kindness, generosity, beauty, and grace. (To ensure that she won’t be TOO mad at me, I included a pretty picture of her in which I have a double chin.)
2009 was a good year for the Welches: Dan met Lindsay, his fiance, I married Gideon, the love of my life, and Diana had Harvey–the first Welch of that generation–making Amanda the coolest grandmother/aunt in the universe. And that was all BEFORE our book was published on September 29th, 2009.
our mom died. Christmas 1985 was the worst ever, and 1986 to 1990 were pretty sad too as my siblings and I were separated. Our memoir ends with the four of us reunited, after five long painful years apart. That Christmas 1991 was a happy occasion–Diana’s stocking hung stuffed to the cuff next to Amanda’s, Dan’s and mine. We played Santa for each other then, and continued to do so for many years afterward. In fact, many people who have read our book have asked, what happened next?? Read more…