Mississippi, 1967. It’s the Summer of Love, yet unwed mothers’ maternity homes are flourishing, secret closed adoptions are routine, and many young women still have no voice.
In You’ll Forget This Ever Happened, Laura Engel takes us back to the Deep South during the turbulent 1960s to explore the oppression of young women who have committed the socially unacceptable crime of becoming pregnant without a ring on their finger. After being forced to give up her newborn son for adoption, Engel lives inside a fortress of silent shame for fifty years—but when her secret son finds her and her safe world is cracked open, those walls crumble.
Are you still a mother even if you have not raised your child? Can the mother/child bond survive years of separation? How deep is the damage caused by buried family secrets and shame? Engel asks herself these and many other questions as she becomes acquainted with the son she never knew, and seeks the acceptance and forgiveness she has long denied herself. Full of both aching sadness and soaring joy, You’ll Forget This Ever Happened is a shocking exposé of a shameful part of our country’s recent past—and a poignant tale of a mother’s enduring love.
Industry Reviews
2023 International Book Awards Finalist in Autobiography/Memoir
2023 National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist in Memoir
"Laura Engel tells her emotional and compelling story of becoming a pregnant, unwed teen in the Deep South in the 1960s, being shut away in a home for wayward women, and being forced to give up her first son to adoption. Then, after years of shame and guilt, she tells the heartwarming and inspiring story of reuniting with her long-lost son after forty-nine years. A powerful true story of historical, societal, and cultural stigmas against women, the complicated but strong bonds of family, the difficult road to self-acceptance and forgiveness, and the fierce love between a mother and her lost, but never forgotten, child."
-Nina Neilson Little, author of Spirit Baby: Travels Through China on the Long Road to Motherhood
“You'll Forget This Ever Happened will break your heart and exhilarate your spirit. Honest and vulnerable while offering hope and love, Engel speaks to and for many young women of a generation that had little choice on how to cope with teen pregnancy at a time when shame was buried deep and heartbreak was never to be spoken of. Engel's prose is lyrical, and her storytelling is filled with rich and imaginative details. Endearing and heartwarming, this book is a treasure.”
—Madonna Treadway, award-winning author of Six Healing Questions: A Gentle Path to Facing Loss of a Parent
“You'll Forget This Ever Happened is a deeply moving, heart-wrenching, and visually alive memoir exposing the pain Engel experienced after becoming pregnant at a young age and being forced by her southern parents to give up her child. Ultimately the story is one of resilience, forgiveness, and acceptance, with an ending made for a movie.”
—Roberta S. Kuriloff, author of Everything Special, Living Joy
“When seventeen-year-old Laura finds herself pregnant, she hopes to find a way to keep the baby—even if it means raising him as an unmarried single mother. Unbeknownst to her, her parents have other plans, and Laura is forced to relinquish her son shortly after his birth. Fifty years later, thanks to DNA technology no one in the ’60s could have imagined, Laura and her son are reunited. You’ll Forget This Ever Happened is a triumph of the human spirit and a mother’s enduring love.”
—Lauren Cross, writer and reproductive rights advocate
“You'll Forget This Ever Happened is a powerful, gripping memoir that grabs a hold of you from the first few words and keeps you turning pages to find out what will happen next. Engel travels back in time to when she was a young teen in the Deep South and was all but forced to give up a baby she wanted. She deftly captures her heartbreaking struggle—and explores the way she faced down shame and buried secrets to find herself and her long-lost son. Told with heart and grit, honesty and wisdom, You'll Forget This Ever Happened is a poignant read about a mother's unending love that will stay with you long after you have read the last page.”
—Marni Freedman, author of 7 Essential Tools, and Permission To Roar and cofounder of San Diego Writers Festival
“Laura Engel’s You’ll Forget This Ever Happened: Secrets, Shame and Adoption in the 1960s is a gripping and ultimately redemptive story about a teenage girl forced to relinquish her newborn son in a New Orleans home for unwed mothers in the 1960s. With beautiful descriptions and poetic, engaging writing, Engel breathes new life into a long-gone time in the South. This memoir is hard to put down in the best of ways. Full of surprises, plot twists, and you-can’t-believe-it's-true moments, this book is a testament to a mother's enduring love. Grab a glass of sweet tea and prepare t
