Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I was born in Jamestown, New York, in 1940. My mother, Desirée Hunt, was of French-English descent, with a touch of Irish from her father’s side that showed in her porcelain-fine English complexion and auburn hair. I was adored by my parents. #2 I was four when my father died. I remember the moment my mother told me, and the picture fell from the wall. I was very superstitious about birds ever since. I wouldn’t buy anything with a print of a bird, and I wouldn’t stay in a hotel room with bird pictures or wallpaper. #3 I was an only child, and it was such a happy, relaxed time for me. But my mother was miserable away from her children, so in a year or so, she returned to Jamestown. She’d been a widow for about three years when she married a big ugly-handsome Swede named Ed Peterson. #4 I was sent to live with the Petersons, who were both quite elderly. They were religious, and I was punished for any wrongdoing with solitary confinement in my room or being sent to bed before the sun went down in summer.