“This story will have readers not only rooting for Ginny and Lucy, but thinking about them long after the last page is turned.” — Lisa Wingate, New York Times Bestselling Author of Before We Were Yours PopSugar’s 30 Must-Read Books of 2019 Good Housekeeping’s 25 Best New Books for Summer 2019 Better Homes & Gardens 13 New Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Summer The heartbreaking and … Read This Summer
The heartbreaking and uplifting story, inspired by incredible true events, of how far one mother must go to protect her daughter.
Dover, Massachusetts, 1969. Ginny Richardson’s heart was torn open when her baby girl, Lucy, born with Down Syndrome, was taken from her. Under pressure from his powerful family, her husband, Ab, sent Lucy away to Willowridge, a special school for the “feeble-minded.” Ab tried to convince Ginny it was for the best. That they should grieve for their daughter as though she were dead. That they should try to move on.
But two years later, when Ginny’s best friend, Marsha, shows her a series of articles exposing Willowridge as a hell-on-earth–its squalid hallways filled with neglected children–she knows she can’t leave her daughter there. With Ginny’s six-year-old son in tow, Ginny and Marsha drive to the school to see Lucy for themselves. What they find sets their course on a heart-racing journey across state lines–turning Ginny into a fugitive.
For the first time, Ginny must test her own strength and face the world head-on as she fights Ab and his domineering father for the right to keep Lucy. Racing from Massachusetts to the beaches of Atlantic City, through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to a roadside mermaid show in Florida, Keeping Lucy is a searing portrait of just how far a mother’s love can take her.
“A heartrending yet inspiring novel that kept me reading late into the night.” –Kristina McMorris, New York Times bestselling author of Sold on a Monday and The Edge of Lost
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A beautifully written novel.
How much would you be willing to sacrifice for a child you didn’t know? This is the question posed in T. Greenwood’s Keeping Lucy, the story of a young mother betrayed by those who claim to know best—including her husband—and the harrowing journey she must take to find her voice and take a stand—even if taking a stand means losing everything. Compassionate, clear-eyed, and often wrenching, Keeping Lucy is the kind of story that’s meant to be read with the heart, and one that will resonate long after the reading is done.
A well written,heart-wrenching story.
People did not know what to do with “not”perfect babies that were born in the 1960’s. Families felt shame and blame as they placed these little ones into facilities to live out their days. They were called “residential schools” aka institutions.
Parents went on and tried to forget.
The children were better off, weren’t they?
Lucy was born with Down’s Syndrome. Her Dad gave up parental rights the day she was born and she was placed into an institution. It was the right decision.
This is a story of a mom who could not forget her little girl.
Ginny had always wondered about Lucy. Was she happy, healthy and receiving adequate care?
When she learns that there have been deficiencies in the “Home” Lucy lives in, Ginny sets out on a mission to right the wrongs. Ginny will not stop nor will she ever give up fighting for her child.
It is a novel of hope, love, courage, despair, tragedy and yet inspiration.
“Keeping Lucy” is one of the most heartbreaking books I’ve read, but worth every tear!
After the birth of her daughter, Ginny’s world is blown apart. Lucy was born with Down’s Syndrome and Ginny’s husband and father-in-law decide it’s best for her to be sent away to a “special school”.
What a brutal time for these poor children! And their families. There was little known about the condition and it was common for them to be hidden away at mental institutions. During that period, it was also rare for a woman to be independent and defiant.
The book documents Ginny’s journey to save Lucy after she finds out the institution has been accused of negligence, abuse and other horrendenous acts.
Thank you to Goodreads Giveaways, T. Greenwood and St. Martin’s Press, for this free digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!
My Rating: 5 ’s
Published: August 6th 2019 by St. Martin’s Press
Pages: 320
Recommend: Yes
@tgwood505 @StMartinsPress @Goodreads
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Keeping Lucy grabbed me from the very first sentence and I was totally captivated by the characters and the story-line. This was a book that I didn’t want to put down—I became that interested in what was happening and wanted only the best for them.
What happened to Ginny and her daughter when she was born was fairly common during the time period that this story takes place. Ginny’s strength takes her on the fight of her life, for herself sure, but most of all for her daughter and other’s like little Lucy. I was cheering loudly for Ginny and Lucy as they tried to take down the system.
This was a wonderful, heartwarming story that will definitely stick with me for along time. What a beautiful story demonstrating the power of love.
Keeping Lucy was a mesmerizing novel! I enjoyed the way that the mother’s battle to do the right thing was portrayed. Ginny gave birth to her second child, Lucy, two years ago. Her husband and his family felt that it was best to let the child stay at an institution because she was born with Down Syndrome, He keeps putting Ginny off when she wants to go visit her daughter until two years have gone by. Then Ginny’s friend Marsha shows up and tells her that there have been accusations made that the institution is being charged with not taking care of the children properly. Marsha helps Ginny take Lucy out for a visit for the weekend. When Ginny realizes how bad Lucy was treated, the women take off out of state with Lucy and Ginny becomes more and more determined to never take her back to the institution. Ginny hopes her husband will help her but he is standing by his parents’ advice that they give the child up. Ginny had her baby in 1969 in a time when women were treated differently and they were expected to behave differently. What Lucy experienced and what Ginny and Marsha go through while they flee was heartbreaking. I couldn’t stop reading. I was hoping for the best, but at the same time expecting something terrible to happen.
Once I started this book I couldn’t put it down. It moves with the speed of a runaway locomotive.
You will be appalled at how supposed doctors and nurses treated the little HUMAN beings they were entrusted to care for and love. I can’t wrap my head around how a nurse with children of her own could watch a child drink water out of a toilet and say, “Oh, she’s just being difficult.” Seriously?!?!?!
Whether you understand the precious world of special needs or not you will understand the horrors experienced at Willowridge. I would have kidnapped my child and did exactly what Ginny did. Do I understand why she let her father-in-law and husband make the initial decision to begin with? No, but I was raised in a different time with parents who taught me to stand up for myself and make my own decisions.
Keeping Lucy is a work of fiction based on a true story that will have you cheering Ginny all the while making you think about “what would I do.”
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, through NetGalley. Any and all opinions expressed in the above review are entirely my own.
How difficult would it be for you to give up a child because of mental disabilities and health issues? And then how much would you be willing to give up in order to save this child?
This was a very moving book that will have you holding your breath waiting to see what will happen when you turn the next page. The author does a great job of bringing you into the story and having you emotionally invested in how things will end up by the time you turn the last page and close the book.
What a roller coaster ride of angst, fear, love, anger, hope, and strength. Once you’ve finished the book, the emotions you experienced will stay with you long after the book has been closed and set to the side. You will have to wait a while before you can even think about opening another book.
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Ginny has given birth to a down syndrome little girl, Lucy. Her father-in-law makes sure Lucy is sent away. Then a series of articles come out about the neglect at the facility Lucy has been placed. Ginny makes a decision! This decision changes everyone’s life.
Ginny is a mother struggling to understand and remedy a situation she had no part in. All of the decisions were made before she was in her right mind after the birth of her daughter. Her husband is basically ruled by his father. And Ginny just follows along. There are many times in this story which I question Ginny’s decision making skills. It was a different time and she had another child to take care of, BUT….to not even check on your daughter for 2 years…..hmmm. There are other places I question her ability as well…but this is the BIG one. I should not judge because who knows what one will do in this situation. But, I think I would check and not just follow my husbands decisions blindly.
This book is hard to read in places. I had to take a break or two. I could not read it straight through. When it talked about the mistreatment of the children, my heart just broke. This is an emotional, rip your heart out story and everyone needs to read it.
Author T. Greenwood sets the story in 1971. The Women’s Movement is gaining steam, but it is still a time when women lacked power and autonomy. For instance, a woman could not yet have a credit card issued in her name and many professions were still hostile to women. Two years earlier, when Ginny and Ab’s daughter was born, Ginny only held her child only briefly before she was whisked away. Ironically, Ginny’s father died when she was only ten years old and she was raised thereafter by her single, working mother. Yet when Ginny met Ab in college and the two of them bonded over their shared love of poetry, both Ginny and Ab allowed their future to be commandeered by Ab’s overbearing father. Ab abandons his plans, acceding to his father’s demand that he attend law school and, upon graduation, join his father’s firm. The elder Richardson supplies the financing for the young couple’s home, and Ginny leaves her job at the college library behind in favor of raising their son, Peyton, and spending her days ironing Ab’s shirts, preparing meals, and trying to keep her husband and in-laws happy, an impossible goal because of their disapproval of her. Ginny is barely an active participant in her own life, even though she loves her husband and child.
Ab does not challenge his father, who insists that Lucy be placed in Willowridge and makes all of the arrangements by calling in a favor. Ginny does not fight for her child, instead going along as Ab tries to console her by promising that Lucy will be well cared for. They engage in a charade, letting all but their closest family members and friends believe that the child died. As time passes, Ab puts Ginny off when she suggests that they, at last, visit Lucy at Willowridge. But Ginny never forgets her daughter.
When Ginny’s best friend, Marsha, draws her attention to a series of newspaper articles exposing the abhorrent conditions at Willowridge and Ginny learns that a group of parents are filing a class action lawsuit, she comes alive. She defies Ab and enlists Marsha help. Ginny has never even learned to drive, another aspect of her complicity in her own helplessness. The two of them proceed to Willowridge where Ginny manages to check Lucy out of the institution for a weekend visit and begins to get acquainted with her now two-year-old child. Discovering that Lucy has been a victim of neglect at Willowridge finally enrages Ginny and spurs her to action. But she soon discovers that she is powerless — she has no standing to make decisions about Lucy’s future. Nonetheless, she and Marsha embark on a dangerous “Thelma and Louise”-type journey. Ginny is determined that she will find a way to keep Lucy and raise her — as she should have in the first place.
Greenwood accurately portrays a different, not all that long-ago era in America when persons with disabilities were viewed as less than. As Ginny and Marsha travel through several states, Greenwood reveals with heartbreaking clarity how Lucy has suffered from neglect and how discovering the truth transforms Ginny. Marsha, Ginny’s polar opposite, is as fascinating a character — a woman who has done all the things and taken all the risks Ginny, cocooned in her predictable and secure life, never has. But she too is at a turning point in her life and must make a decision, even as the two women continue working their way to Florida where, they hope, their plan will come to fruition and prevent Ginny from being arrested and prosecuted. As the story progresses, Greenwood credibly portrays the strong bond between the two women, as well as Ginny’s gradual empowerment and increasing appreciation of and reliance upon her own ingenuity and resourcefulness. Keeping Lucy is, in a very real sense, a coming of age tale. The pace of Keeping Lucy is relentless and Greenwood’s holds her reader’s interest by placing Ginny and Marsha in a series of predicaments that test their strength and luck.
Ab is indisputably the most maddening character, but Greenwood tells the story of how he and Ginny met, fell in love, and married through a series of flashbacks interspersed with the narrative set in 1971. Ultimately, although Ab is not the focus of Greenwood’s tale, she describes in plausible detail how Ab became so eager to please his domineering father, and how his circumstances fueled his choices and what Ginny perceives as serious betrayals of her and their children.
Keeping Lucy is an interesting look back at the way things used to be in the United States that will prove eye-opening for readers who are too young to recall those times, and remind those who do remember just how much has been achieved in terms of women’s rights, social justice, and the way, as a society, we perceive and care for those with special needs and abilities. It is a thoroughly engrossing tale about motherhood, female friendships and, through her examination of Ginny’s metamorphosis, confirmation that it is never too late to stand up, be counted, and do the right thing. Especially for one’s own child.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book.
Loved this book from page one. A compassionate telling of a tragic story.
Keeping Lucy isn’t normally my kind of read, but I remember the scandal that inspired this one, so it drew me in. The story absolutely broke my heart while simultaneously infuriating me to no end. I know that places like Willowridge existed. As I said, I remember the scandal, but that didn’t make it any easier to read. Ginny’s visit to Willowridge doesn’t take up as much space on the page as I had expected, but her problems with getting Lucy well and reasonably fit do, and none of it was easy to read about. There were things that happened that bothered me – Marsha’s actions and language even around children, Ab’s father and his high-handed treatment of his family, that kind of thing – but the things that bothered me the most were Ab’s and Ginny’s actions at the beginning. I really wanted to give Ab a good shake and tell him to just man up, and it was equally hard to understand Ginny and the way she bent to Ab’s wishes, or more accurately, Ab’s father’s wishes. And then there’s Marsha. She’s a little over the top in that she’s almost everything we think about in a bad role model for children. So much so that she’s almost caricature-like, which was the biggest drawback for me. Marsha aside, when I stopped to think about the generation of people here, I wasn’t quite so upset with Ab and Ginny. I still wanted to shake Ab, but Ginny’s action made a little more sense given the circumstances. The stigma surrounding children like Lucy was a huge factor in life in that time, and certain things were expected of people. That doesn’t excuse any of it, but it was what it was, and I believe that stories like this one do have their place. We should always remember our history lest we repeat it. I think Keeping Lucy is going to be one of those books that you either like or you don’t. I don’t think there’s going to be much straddling the fence on this one, especially in this day and age when we know so much more about what’s good and bad for a child, or at least we think we do. In the end, I do wish there had been a little more peeling back the layers surrounding Willowridge, but the author has still written a compelling story that I found hard to put down.
Awesome story. One that I have to admit scared me a bit. Yes, the book blurb made me want to read it. But I was also a bit afraid that it might be totally depressing and make me blubber all the way through. It didn’t do any of those things but it definitely was an emotional story. One that kept me totally involved all the way through.
I don’t always like it when a story goes back and forth between the past and the current times. But this one did it so well, that I didn’t mind at all. Mainly the years 1969 (when Lucy was born) and the then current year of 1971 was dealt with. There is also a few looks back at the years prior to those dates. But it gave a great look into who the main characters were and who they HAD been. 1971 was the year when the truth finally hit Ginny. It was a dramatic, painful hit that her best friend, Marsha brought to her attention. It changes everything.
Ab and Ginny were living lives that they had NEVER dreamed of. And they were both trapped in their own ways. They do have a precious little boy Peyton who hardly gets to see his father. Because Ab’s father practically has his whole life controlled in the ways that he wants. And guilt holds Ab in place with a ferocious way. Ab had never really won an argument with his father. He ruled with his iron control, wealth and power.
As you read the book, you can get the gist of some of what sweet Lucy’s story has been.
This was such a well written story with surprises along the way. Even with people who surprisingly supported them as they ran for Lucy’s life. No it wasn’t an underground railroad or anything like that. But kind, loving people along the way.
I liked the way the story ended and how Ginny fought as hard as she did to protect the child she had been grieving over. The betrayals that she had gone through were outrageous. But she did end up growing a backbone because of that fight for Lucy.
I “I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”
Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews “Keeping Lucy” by T. Greenwood, St. Martin’s Press, August 6, 2019
WOW!! T. Greenwood, Author of “Keeping Lucy” has written an emotional, controversial, thought-provoking, novel that pulled at my heartstrings. The Genre for “Keeping Lucy” is Fiction, but has such a realistic feel. The timeline for this story is 1969 and goes to the past when it pertains to the characters or events in this novel. The author describes her characters as flawed, confused, each having their own set of problems and conflicts.
Ginny lived a very simple life when she met Ab Richardson. The two come from different backgrounds. Ab’s family is wealthy, and his parents” expectations are that he goes to law school. and finally, join his fathers lucrative law-practice. Ab and Ginny get married and they have their son. Ginny and Ab move to a bigger home and prepare for the birth of their daughter.
Ginny is totally distraught when she gives birth go a little girl with “Down Syndrome”. She names her Lucy but is told by her doctor that the baby has a heart defect, and won’t live for long. Before she knows it, Lucy is placed in “WIllowridge” a special school for the “feeble-minded”. It is 1969, and there is not as much information about caring for “such children” as there is in 2019.
Marcia, a good friend of Ginny brings a newspaper clipping about an investigation into WIllowridge, showing abuse and neglect of children. The worst possible conditions exist there. As a mother, Ginny realizes that she has no choice but to go and save Lucy, no matter what the consequences.
I appreciate that the author discusses the importance of caring for disabled children, and the importance of courage, love, and hope. I would highly recommend this thought-provoking novel. I would also suggest you keep Kleenex on hand!!
Keeping Lucy is a book made for mothers. For women who’ve been overlooked. For the housewife that people see as “just a housewife”. For women that feel and love in an instant and will fight for it, no matter the cost.
Boy, was I hit with emotions in this one. Miss Greenwood introduced the characters right out of the gate in 1969. They are at Ginny’s baby shower when she goes into labor right after. But the baby Ginny gives birth to isn’t “healthy” and her husband talks her into entering the baby into a home/school for the feeble minded. They are told she isn’t right and they should not bring her home. They will tell people that her baby did not make it. Can you imagine today if doctors and your loved ones are sitting there telling you that you can’t have your baby? That the baby is a lost cause? I cannot even imagine this. But during this time, I could see this happening. It was a different time back then and people weren’t as educated on ‘different’ as we are now.
Then we fast forward to 1971 where most of the story takes place. Ginny and her husband Ab and her son Peyton are living a seemingly normal life. Everyone is healthy, successful and happy. But something is always missing from Ginny. When her best friend Marsha shows up with a newspaper about the place where Lucy, her “feeble minded” child is living, Ginny takes matters into her own hands.
This is where the story left me with feels and happiness and frustration combined. The happiness was seeing women come together for each other and fighting for one another, no matter what the outcome would be. I adored Marsha and her love for Ginny, Lucy and Peyton. She may have had other issues going on, but she was steadfast in her belief to get Ginny and Lucy away from anything that may have made them unsafe. It was fun to see these two women running away, yet discovering themselves at the same time. But Ginny was the character that had me all emotional. I couldn’t even begin to imagine her life and living to please others. She grew so much throughout the story. From her past, which we got to see glimpses of, to her ‘road trip’ with Marsha and the kids. She learned so much about herself and what she was made of. And the kids? Peyton even came around and developed into such a great character. He learned about love and family. But you know it was going to be the adorably curly haired Lucy that stole the show. Even with minimal conversation, her just being in the scene made the plot more beautiful.
Miss T Greenwood took a period in the past and wrote a story from the heart. The characters and their journey could be 100% believable. She tells the truth and breaks my heart a bit while putting it back together in some sort of way. If you enjoy realistic fiction and seeing into the past a bit, you will enjoy the journey she took us on. I feel as if this book is more for women, but anyone with a heart and love for children will appreciate this book and the journey this family took to get to their “happily ever after.” The ending was a bit rushed for my taste since we had such a build up, but it was a well written and engaging story with characters that were developed in a very believable way. I truly enjoyed this read.
This is a very special work. It is hard, in our iPhone, WorldWideWeb world with every conceivable question answered at our fingertips, to imagine just how limited the knowledge that parents were exposed to in the 1960s when their child was born with complications. There was no foreknowledge – no prenatal testing, no ultrasounds, to time to get prepared, to research choices. Lucy is the second child of Ginny and Ab Richardson, a comfortably situated family with resources who are good, caring, loving parents to their 4-year-old son Peyton. Their home is in suburban Dover, Massachusetts, and Ad works in his father’s law firm in Boston, a 45-minute train ride away.
Lucy is born with Down Syndrome. Within twenty-four hours, Ginny still groggy from the anesthesia, Lucy has been removed from the hospital of her birth after her parents were counseled by both their doctor and Ab’s family to place Lucy in Willowridge Children’s Home in Amherst. They were told repeatedly that they would not be able to care for Lucy themselves, that her needs were more than could be handled at home, that she would never speak, never walk, never learn even basic life skills and the stress of caring for her would destroy their family, would rob Peyton of his youth. This was a safe children’s home, they were told, well run by social friends of Abbott Sr. But visiting was not encouraged – not recommended at all as Lucy’s probable health problems would more than likely take her within a couple of years and further contact would only break their hearts. Especially Peyton’s heart.
Ginny is never content with this plan but other than mentioning occasionally that she really wants to visit Lucy, see the world she inhabits, she allows herself to be distracted. Ab is frantically busy working in the city for his father’s law firm and life is set in a pattern that doesn’t allow time for a trip to Amherst. Genny doesn’t drive, doesn’t have a sitter for Peyton, is afraid to expose Peyton to a sister he will have to face losing to death before she has a chance to live. Until Ginny’s old friend Marsha, a nurse in Amherst, calls with the breaking news about the atrocious conditions, neglect, and abuse, at the Willowridge Children’s Home where Lucy, now almost two years old, lives.
Martha drives over to Dover and picks up Ginny and Peyton, and they make the trip to find that the newspaper articles are more than true. There is a class action suit being prepared by many of the parents which Ginny could join – until she finds out that her father-in-law is representing the Home in said suit. And that her husband gave up their parental rights to Lucy at her birth. The only thing she can think to do is grab her children, and run…
I received a free electronic copy of this historical novel from Netgalley, T. Greenwood, and St. Martin’s Press. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work.
Keeping Lucy was a story that touched me to the core, as this was the time-period of my birth, and, well, what-if? Or, what if Lucy had been my child? What happened to Lucy, and Ginny, was horrible. We could ask how it could have happened, how Ginny could have let it happen, but we live in a different time and most in different situations. Ginny married into family worlds away from how she grew up. She wanted a simple life for her family, but when circumstances changed; her father-in-law’s influence was far-reaching. When Lucy was born with Down’s syndrome, everyone painted a dire outlook for her future. They didn’t give Ginny any chance for lucidity, and by the time she was able to think clearly, her husband (and father-in-law) took the decisions out of her hands. When her best friend lets her know about the expose on the “school,” she realizes it’s past time to see where her daughter is. Ginny was never a bad person, and once she had Lucy in her arms, she faced hard truths and it was time to realize she could stand on her own, stand up for her daughter, and be the person she always wanted to be. I adored Marsha, she is definitely the best type of friend to have, the one that they always say will be the one to help you bury the bodies and sit with you in jail.
For me, this was engrossing, thought-provoking, and over-all a great read!
#KeepingLucy #TGreenwood #StMartinsPress
This thought-provoking Thelma and Louise tale, with a purpose, transported me back in time to when special needs children were seldom considered special. Prolific T. Greenwood’s has written another stunning novel with love, poetic lyrical language and suspense that pulled me in from the start and kept me turning pages to see what comes next until the very end. I highly recommend it!
Keeping Lucy was an interesting story about a terribly difficult subject and time in the country. By that I mean, the era that found people who had a child with any abnormalities being pressured to institutionalize the child and told to move on with life, almost as if that child was never born.
I found Ginny to be rather stereotypical, as she embodied most of the 1950s era “good wife” expectations – dinner on the table when hubby comes home, do as your husband says to, take care of the house, the kids and the hubby, put yourself last in all things and don’t complain.
I get it. I know that was the norm. I guess that’s something that led to 3 stars rather than 4 or 5. I felt as if this character was more from the 50s and not the 60s when people were tending to experience a new normal. I also wish we’d heard more about Lucy, her life and the ways in which she was affected by living as she did.
Keeping Lucy was a good read, I just wish it had gone deeper. It’s one that I probably won’t reread. This is a book I’d recommend with some caveats. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for allowing me an ARC at my request. My thoughts in this review are my own and freely shared.
Keeping Lucy is a tale of a mother’s love and how powerful it could be. Ginny’s heart was broken when she was told that her baby had Down’s Syndrome. It was crushed even more when her powerful father in law arraigned for the newborn to be taken to Willowridge, a school for feeble-minded people. Ginny was never allowed to see Lucy and was told that she should mourn for Lucy like she was dead. Two years pass. Then Ginny’s friend Marsha shows her a series of articles that expose Willowridge as a hell on earth for its residents. Horrified at what she saw and read, Ginny, can’t leave Lucy there. After seeing the school and the conditions for herself, Ginny is determined never to bring her back. But her actions have consequences that soon have her and Marsha racing towards Florida with the children. What will happen to Lucy? To Ginny?
Keeping Lucy was a hard book for me to read. As a mother, I couldn’t even begin to fathom what Ginny went through in the 2 years after Lucy was taken from her. I don’t know how she could live with her husband after he forced that decision on her. But, then again, this was the late 60’s/early ’70s. Men still made the decisions, and women’s feelings were not thought about.
Ginny’s character development through the book was terrific. She went from being this meek, compliant housewife to a person who stood her ground when threatened. I loved it. She became an enraged mama bear protecting her cub. The ultimatum that she threw down to Ab was epic. Even better was what she said to her overbearing, control freak of a father in law.
I didn’t care for Ab. He let his father rule his life. In doing so, he allowed his daughter to be placed in a “school” with deplorable living conditions. He did love Ginny and Peyton. I also understood where he was coming from when he made the decision to send Lucy away. But, it was everything after the fact that made me go “WTF.“
Lucy was the innocent victim in all this. I shared Ginny’s horror when she saw (and smelled) the conditions of that “school.” The scene when Ginny first changed Lucy’s diaper broke my heart. How long did she sit in that diaper for the rash to get that bad?? There are other examples of the severe neglect that she endured, but I won’t go into them.
I didn’t like Ab’s father. He was a controlling jerk. I don’t understand why he thought that he could separate a mother from her child. I don’t understand why he thought that bullying his son into complying was alright. I do believe that he was one of those rich people who thought money and connections solved everything. He was a jerk and deserved a knee to the crotch.
The main plotline, Ginny going on the run with the kids, was well written. It did get off to a slow start, but it gained steam. By the time everyone reached Florida, it was flowing nicely. I could taste her desperation. I could feel her horror and fear. But, more importantly, I saw the fierce love that she had for her children. She was willing to do whatever it took to prevent Lucy from going back to that hellhole.
The end of Keeping Lucy was different. All I have to say about it is that I am happy with how things ended up.