Love Never Leaves, A Memoir
By Deborah Huse Blanchard
Love Never Leaves is a memoir by Deborah Huse Blanchard who gave up her biracial sons for adoption after receiving unrelenting racist threats in her hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1950’s. She met her husband George while a student at the New England Conservatory of Music and was blissfully unaware of the racial turmoil that embroiled the country, knowing only that she loved this man. George warned Deborah of the difficulties they would face as a mixed-race couple. Over time he grew more and more distant, troubled, and consumed by his own life experiences as a black man and a black classical musician.
As the new family was expanding, George worked as a waiter in upper-class Boston establishments and continued to struggle with his internal demons. Deborah, whose great love had always been singing, returned home to Lowell with her children in hopes of doing so again and of resuming a normal life with her close-knit family.
Instead, Lowell turned a cold shoulder and she and the boys became the targets of cruel racial prejudice. She received phone calls threatening that she would never see her sons again if she sent them to public school. Finally forced to make a difficult choice for her children’s safety, Deborah made the agonizing decision to place them for adoption. As part of the adoption plan she stipulated that the boys be placed together and with an African-American family. Because of the closed adoption system that existed at the time, she wasn’t able to maintain contact or oversight of any kind once the adoption took place. It was many years before she learned her sons had, in fact, been separated.
After the adoption, Deborah spiraled into a deep depression that only began to fade years later when an employer recommended she read the memoir of Boston Red Sox outfielder Jimmy Piersall, who also struggled with depression. She vowed that she would find her sons once they came of age and eventually she did. Thus began a lifelong effort to rebuild bridges with her sons and their children.
Paired with Deborah’s own moving account are 23 other stories of adoption by adoptees and members of birth families and adoptive families, including that of her eldest son, George.
Insightful, poignant, and beautifully written, this is a don’t miss for anyone connected to or interested in the triad of adoption: birth parents, adoptees, adoptive parents and for those who simply love a good read and are inspired by shared experiences of love and grace.
Deborah would love to hear from you. You can email her at blancharddwnd@aol.com.
Love Never Leaves can be found in these locations and wherever books are sold: