Another Place Called Home: Surviving Foster Care

by Susan DuMond

Overview

Arrive. Endure. Age out. Three challenges in the life of a foster child. The first few hours in foster care can last a lifetime... Taken from their broken homes, the foster care system owned them now. From the first day, the girls faced reminders that they were discards. They saw it in the cold expressions of the housemothers, the sudden empty locker in the dorm, the look of defeat when a girl lost a hastily made ally. The older ones felt it when rejected by foster parents. They were a risk to the dream of family. They longed to leave, but feared the ordeal of yet another place called home. This became the world of eleven-year-old Sue Pickering the day she was deposited in the Susquehanna Valley Orphanage. Aging out of foster care without mentoring is like a broken promise... A memoir in the young girl's voice, "Another Place Called Home" is about surviving in the youth foster care system, an almost invisible population of more than 400,000 children. Each child faces an uncertain horizon. Those who never find placement with a family will "age out" of the system, another jarring transition. They lose financial support, have no place to live, no job, trouble obtaining education and have no adult to guide them. "Another Place Called Home" portrays their search for strength, dignity and the desperate need for mentoring.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781543940794
Publisher:	BookBaby
Publication date:	05/01/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	276
File size:	911 KB

About the Author

The story told in Another Place Called Home is real. Susan DuMond lived at the Susquehanna Valley Children's Home for six years. She arrived at age eleven and aged out at eighteen. Susan holds a BA in Liberal Arts/Theatre from Bennington College in Vermont and a PhD from the University of Oregon in Educational Policy and Management. As a technical writer and information designer, Susan has written, edited, published and collaborated on more than 25 books. Susan's poetry has appeared in a number of publications, most recently in Jefferson Journal. Published stories include "The Visit," one of the top-ten memoirs to appear in Fish Anthology 2013 (Fish Publishing, Ireland) and "Lucille's Shoes," a finalist in a WOW-WomenOnWriting flash fiction contest. Soon to be published is "Life Interrupted" in Fear and Courage (Exisle Publishing, New Zealand). The author was one of the fortunate foster care kids. She hopes her story will help increase awareness of foster care youth and their needs, particularly those who are aging out.

Table of Contents

I Am Eleven 1

Back at the Home 43

Things Change 79

Relatives 115

Fitting In 153

Finding My Way 169

The Door Opens 187

What's Next 207

Making It Happen 219

On My Way 251

Editorial Reviews

2019-04-23
In this debut memoir, a woman shares the traumas and triumphs of her seven years in and out of the foster-care system in upstate New York during the 1950s.

DuMond was 11 years old when the police took her mother away in an ambulance and the author was placed in the Susquehanna Valley Children's Home in Binghamton. Her father had deserted the family years earlier, and her single mother was an alcoholic who had violent episodes. Six months later, DuMond was informed by the housemother Miss Hartford that her mother had been released from the hospital and that she and the author's stepfather were coming for a visit. "My stepfather?" DuMond thinks. "I don't have a stepfather." Evidently, after her mother left the hospital, she married neighbor Les Whalen. They rented a duplex outside Binghamton and wanted the author to live with them. The experiment lasted less than six months, when her mother began drinking again. DuMond's return to the children's home coincided with the institution's opening of smaller houses, each one serving as a residence for 12 girls and one housemother. The accommodations were significantly better than dormitory life, but the Cottage 3 housemother was especially antagonistic toward the author. Well-honed, primarily present-tense prose lends an air of immediacy to the memoir: "On most nights…I lie in bed and wait. In the dark, it feels like something is going to happen. I don't know what, but it scares me." Many of the stories illustrate harsh treatment, as when the Cottage 3 housemother forced DuMond into a tiny utility closet with scalding hot water running. But the tone is lightened with warm vignettes featuring Mr. McPherson, director of the home, and Miss Maude, the new housemother for Cottage 3. They provide supportive direction, appreciation of the author's academic achievements, and genuine affection. Her tales about a stint working as a 16-year-old apprentice in local summer stock, including delightfully humorous backstage gossip about several of the decade's theatrical luminaries, add some welcome levity.

An articulate, painful, and touching journey that ends with an against-the-odds victory.

Kirkus Reviews