The past belongs to everyone who was there. What do you remember? ADD YOUR STORY
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Diana heard the news first, and speed dialed Liz–”I just got an email that says we are in People Magazine!” she said. Liz went to the nearest newsstand, opened to page 67 and Liz promptly burst into tears. She called Diana: “It’s the lead review!” she said. ”There are two photos and a book jacket image that takes up 1/4 of the page!” She next called Dan and Amanda and read the review to each verbatim.
Following a 3 1/2 out of 4 star review, this is what it said:
“Each truth is our own,” declare the authors of this astonishing group memoir about memory, resilience, and four orphans who refused to be broken by loss. In 1983 the Welch children’s investment banker dad died in a car crash, leaving the family deep in debt. Their soap-star mom succumbed to cancer soon after, and while 19-year-old Amanda lost herself in drugs and punk rock at college, Liz, 16, Dan, 14, and Diana, 8, were wrenched apart. Liz stayed with a family she babysat for. Troubled Dan bounced from home to home. But Diana had it the hardest, living with a family bent on erasing her past and denying access to her beloved siblings. In indelible voices, each Welch contradicts, embellishes or supports the others’ memories, creating a blisteringly funny, heart-scorching tale of remarkable kids shattered by tragedy and finally brought back together by love.”
Caroline Leavitt, October 5, 2009, People Magazine
Spirits still soaring from this news softened any disappointment from the news that the Good Morning America, originally scheduled to air on Monday September 28th in the 8am to 8:30am hour, was being postponed until later this week. We have been assured it will run–and are hopeful it will! And will let everyone know when to tune in as soon as we know ourselves!
Last but not least, all four Welches are meeting up in Washington, DC tonight to prepare for our book launch. Tomorrow is THE BIG DAY! Our book’s official pub date, the day before Diana’s 32nd birthday and 27 days after Harvey Moon Hartman, Diana and Jesse’s beautiful boy, arrived on this planet. We will be celebrating all of that this evening, plus raising a glass to our parents. We know in our hearts that they are proud of us… and think our Mom may have had something to do with that People Magazine placement, and Dad with all those twinkly stars!
your memoir is very moving. thank you for sharing your story. i lost a parent though in early adulthood, so i can only imagine how heart wrenching your lives became when thrown into turmoil, not once, but twice. i read the review in people, and as soon as i could ordered a copy to my kindle. i couldn’t believe in the first pages to read that you were brought up in bedford – the place i call home. it hits even harder reading passages of familiar roads and places. each of you are incredible in your own right. thank you for opening your wounds to us all.
There are six of us and we also contradict what happened when we were growing up. The book was a wonderful way to present the story even though it contradicted each other sometimes. I got the picture of what was being said.