After more than three decades of searching, Claire Hitchon finally found what she was looking for: her biological family.
“It is a very wild ride,” Hitchon said. “The reunion part of meeting your biological family is an emotional roller coaster that you cannot really prepare for.”
The journey to finding her biological family was a long, hard road, filled with years of questions, abuse and troubles.
“I had grown up as an only child in an abusive relationship,” Hitchon said. “It was a very difficult childhood.”
Hitchon has documented her struggles over the years in two books, Finding Heart Horse and The Wall of Secrets.
“In the books there is a lot of trauma,” Hitchon said. “There is rapes, there are beatings, there is drug abuse, there is prison, there are horrific things.”
On Thursday (Aug. 20) Hitchon, who now lives on Vancouver Island, will be sharing her experiences at the Nanaimo North Library, 6250 Hammond Bay Rd., at 6:30 p.m.
Finding Heart Horse was released in 2013 and is the first instalment in a series of memoirs by Hitchon.
The book is about Hitchon’s journey to find something she has always wanted.
The memoir also discusses Hitchon’s experiences from being an adopted child searching for an identity to living on the streets in Toronto’s Yorkville district.
The second installment is The Wall of Secrets, which was released earlier this year.
In that book Hitchon reveals her years of abuse and neglect and talks about her 35-year search for her biological family.
Hitchon says writing the books were in large part a healing process for her, adding that during the writing process she re-experienced all the trauma that she had been through.
“I relived every single moment and every single experience to the point where I could smell my father’s tobacco,” she said.
Proceeds from sales of Hitchon’s books The Wall of Secrets and Finding Heart Horse will be donated to the Covenant House in Vancouver.
For more information on Hitchon, please visit www.thealmostdaughter.wordpress.com.arts@nanaimobulletin.comTwitter: @npescod
