The Memory Keeper's Daughter

This is an interesting story which examines the "ripple effect" of a deep, dark family secret.

In 1964, a young woman goes into labor. Due to a snowstorm, the woman's husband, who is a doctor, is forced to deliver the baby himself, with the assistance of his nurse. To his surprise, his wife delivers twins. One child has Down syndrome. Believing that he is protecting his wife, the doctor gives the child with Down syndrome to Caroline, his nurse, to take to a mental institution. He tells his wife that this child died in childbirth. However, Caroline takes the child for her own, and raises her.

The doctor's act of giving away his own child is shocking. However, in reading the story, the writer explains the doctor's family background and personal circumstance which prompted him to make this decision and the consequence of his decision on his wife and son.

It was intriguing that, although the doctor's wife and son were ignorant of the "dark secret" for many years, it nonetheless caused a disasterous impact upon their lives, and their relationship with the doctor, their husband and father, respectively.