Writer Tracy Mayo chats with me today about her memoir, Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self.
Bio:
Tracy Mayo has two degrees from Duke University. After a homesteading experiment, she embarked on a thirty-year career in commercial construction management, as a trailblazing woman in a man’s world. She is a 2020/2021 artist-in-residence at Craigardan and an alumnus of the Bookgardan writing program. Her writing has appeared at Aspen Summer Words’ juried workshops, in Heimat Review, and in The Ocotillo Review. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her husband and Flat-Coated Retriever.
Welcome, Tracy. Please tell us about your current release.
This book tells the story, over a span of fifty years, of a family saga of secrets and shame in a pre-Roe era in which pregnant teens were banished to “Homes for Unwed Mothers” and their babies given up for adoption. I was one of those girls, but never stopped thinking of my son. Eventually, I set out to find him before there was internet, DNA testing, and without knowing his adoptive name.
What inspired you to write this book?
To experience the healing I knew would come from excavating painful memories; to honor the thousands of girls who came before me; to celebrate my ultimate reunion with my son.
Excerpt from Childless Mother: A Search for Son and Self:
“Before she moved into double room #12 on the first floor of the east wing of the Florence Crittenton Home for Unwed Mothers, she had moved into a three-story Georgian on the Norfolk Naval Shipyard with her upright U.S. Navy father, her anxious mother, and their Shetland Sheepdog, Brandy. She was not happy, as this was their eighth move in her thirteen short years. But the lonely only child was resilient. She bonded with a group of nomadic kids and enjoyed a singular year of discovery in a land of sailboats and destroyers.”
What exciting project are you working on next?
I’d like to learn the craft of poetry.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
When an excerpt from my in-progress manuscript was accepted into the juried workshop known as Aspen Summer Words.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I began working on this memoir within two months of retiring from my career. It has taken me seven years to complete! Although I have the ability to write full-time, my days are filled, in addition to writing, with competing activities such as raising my dog, gardening, exercise, and socializing with my husband, friends and family.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I insist on positioning myself so that I can watch the birds at my feeders.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A geneticist or Supergirl.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Thanks so much for reading!
Childless Mother looks moving and interesting. Thanks for bringing the book to my attention in this interview with Tracy.