Yolande Essiembre

Long-Lost Mom Yolande Essiembre

At seventy-one years of age, she hears her son's voice for the first time.




After forty-six years spent carrying a heavy secret, Yolande has built a good life for herself. A few days after arriving from an exciting trip to Japan, she stops at the local post office to pick up her mail. The clerk hands her a registered letter. Yolande stands motionless as she reads the address of the sender: Department of Social Development, Fredericton, New Brunswick. Her mind somersaults back to the year 1970.




What if for nearly five decades you knew you had a long-lost child, one you had given up for adoption but who has been on your mind and in your heart for all those years? And what if, because your son was conceived as the result of a sexual assault, his existence felt like something you had to hide?




Long-Lost Mom is the poignant story of giving up a child for adoption and the difficulty of remaining silent over the course of a lifetime. When Yolande's son Trevor finds her, she is faced with confronting the truth of her past and a deluge of complicated questions. How could she tell her three other children? How would the life she has built be changed?




Their healing journey is captured through heartfelt and honest correspondence as they come together almost fifty years after his birth. A powerful and engaging memoir, Long-Lost Mom speaks to the healing power of reconciling with ourselves and with our pasts.
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