The Same Smile: The Triumph of a Mother's Love After Losing Two Daughters

This compelling, heartwarming story of love lost and found will make you smile, it will also make you cry, but mostly, it will make you understand. Told, as never before, in the blended voices of both birth mother, Susan and her "found" daughter, Joanne, it promises to pull you in from the "get-go." Experience Susan's extraordinary thirty-year journey from relinquishment to search, culminating with the emotionally charged rollercoaster rid of reunion. "Susan is sixteen, unmarried and pregnant and about to make a choice no woman should ever be forced to make - surrender the precious child she is carrying to adoption. A promise is made, and then, years later, the promise is broken when, yet again, tragedy strikes in her life." This is her true story... Rating -- 5 Stars. Pros -- Very well-written - Flowing story line - A "feel-good" book. Cons -- None. "This wonderfully human story of a 60's relinquishment and a family reunited is told in the blended voices of mother and (found) daughter. Instead of a tragic account of the loss of a child to adoption, compounded by the death of a subsequent child to leukemia, this book is a triumph of strength. The losses are not diminished, the emotional scars are still there, but author Souza's story is forward-looking and encouraging. The added voice of her (found) daughter adds another dimension, with her (Joanne's) honest expression of her initial discomfort, and her growing closeness with her new-found family. The "happily-ever-after" ending is well-deserved, paid for in tears and anguish. "The Same Smile" is an apt title, as seen in the photographs of Souza with her three daughters, but after reading the book, I think the title "The Same Heart" would have been equally appropriate." Nancy Ashe -- Book guide/reviewer. Distributed by Baker and Taylor.Joanne Medeiros Harrington is the author of 'The Same Smile: The Triumph of a Mother's Love After Losing Two Daughters', published 2002 under ISBN 9780972510004 and ISBN 0972510001.