Finding Sara: A Daughter's Journey

by Margaret Edds

What does it mean to lose your mother before reason and understanding take root? Virginia journalist Margaret Edds, barely three when her young mother died of complications from rheumatic fever in 1950, wanted to know. Drawing on the nearly lost medium of letters and traveling a path that led through Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the secret World War II city that helped birth the atomic bomb, and Lynch, Kentucky, a unique town in the heart of the Bloody Harlan coal fields, she discovered the vibrant, imperfect, deeply human woman at her core. She arrived, too, at a sober realization of how one untimely death can reverberate through generations. Finding Sara is a unique and heartwarming memoir that resurrects a lost relationship and a gentler America.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Dan Ream · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fascinating reading- not only for the specifics of Sara's life in Kentucky and Tennessee in the 1940s, but also for Margaret Edds' thoughtful treatment of the larger universal question about the impact of losing loved ones, whether parent, sibling, child or friend. I was impressed by how the author's interviews with other family members provided the background needed to bring Sara's letters to life and how her background research into Harlan County, Oak Ridge, heart disease, and standard medical treatments of the time anticipated other questions I had as I read. I expected this book to be good, but really it was great! Highly recommended.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margaret Edds's journey through letters and travels to come to know her mother Sara, who died when the author was just three years old, is courageous and deeply felt. The book is one of the greatest examples I know of the transformative power of writing. In her mother's letters readers will find a woman who was intelligent, vivacious, beautiful, and impulsive, in her father's letters come to understand his deep and abiding love for his wife--he never remarried, and learn about unique towns just before and during World War II--Lynch, Kentucky, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

[Memaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Letter writing has become a lost art and the timeline preserved through letters as the basis of this memoir is a reminder that our stories need to be preserved for future generations. This was a poignant and historical journey of one woman's quest to get to know the mother she lost at age 3. Although sad, it is beautifully composed and a very compelling read.

[Bobbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the true story of a woman who, at age 3, loses her mother. Many years later, after discovering a box of her mother's old letters, she is able to "meet" her again. The story is beautifully written and very moving.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As a letter-writer myself, I so appreciated the story gleaned from this mother's letters. It makes me glad for the letters that I have saved through the years and the ones saved for me. I wish I had started saving them much sooner!

[Sarahb. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful book, very heartwarming.
Re-read January 12, 2020, did not remember reading this, so enjoyed it again:)