Leaving Loretta Behind

In October, 1951, we meet five year old Louise Stokes, a product of a very dysfunctional family comprised of an alcoholic, abusive father, a mother who is basically a doormat, and a sister, older by fifteen months who is sometimes protector, sometimes nemesis. Just before Louise's tenth birthday, her parents, Riley and JoEllen, leave her and her sister, Christine, in the care of their grandmother while they go to Chicago to escape the scandal caused by her father's illicit affair. Louise settles into a quieter way of life, but when the school year ends, she is transplanted once again, reunited with her parents. As a teenager, Louise meets an older man and begins a relationship with him. When she finds herself pregnant, she must make a choice. Will she have the baby and give it up for adoption, have an illegal abortion, or marry the man responsible and try to have a normal life?

• Chapter 1 - Daddy's True Colors"Five year old Louise is hom..."
• Chapter 2 - Tragedy on the Tracks"Louise and her family arriv..."