Ain't That Right, Tina?: A Search for the Truth About My Family (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781662975202)

When Tina Andreini was five years old, her beloved grandfather gave her a doll for Christmas. Her mother Joan let Tina play with it for a few days, then gave it away to a child in the neighborhood. It was the first time Tina realized there was something quite strange about Joan.

At the heart of this compelling memoir is the absence of a normal life anchored by a nurturing mother. In one year alone, Joan moved Tina and her siblings at least a dozen times all over the country, manipulating and scamming anyone she could, switching back and forth between one made-up reality after another. Whenever her lies were discovered, Joan moved her family to the next town, leaving behind chaos, family pets, and the latest gullible husband she had deceived. And throughout it all, Tina was the family scapegoat, berated by Joan, isolated from peers, and forgotten by relatives who failed to intervene and stop the abuse.

After her mother's death in 2003, Tina had the emotional safety and strength to begin a search for the truth about her unresolved past. She spoke to relatives and half-siblings, and conducted ancestral research using DNA. She began to assemble the puzzle pieces of her mother's life-the rejection and trauma Joan faced as a child, her lack of parenting, the choices that were made for her and not in her best interests.

In the process, Tina recognized disturbing and mystifying family patterns that had been passed down over generations. This knowledge enabled her to face the profound loss that shaped her childhood, relationships, and understanding of love. Finally able to see her mother whole, Tina discovered the freedom that comes through forgiveness.