How do the unfulfilled dreams and promises of our parents shape our lives and our destinies?
During the Normandy Invasion in 1944, an American lieutenant took a French orphan boy Gilbert under his wing, making sure the boy had enough to eat and giving him attention and love. As the months passed and their bond deepened, he tried unsuccessfully to adopt the boy and bring him home to America.
Years later, the soldier’s daughter grew up hearing her father’s stories about his time in France and about the orphan Gilbert. During her childhood, the boy felt like an invisible brother, hovering in her consciousness, slightly out of focus. Fifty years after the war and two years after her father’s death, she found herself compelled to write about how his stories of his time in France had influenced her life.
As she journeyed to France to retrace her father’s footsteps, would she be able to complete what he had left unfinished? Could she find his orphan and tell him that her father had never forgotten him?
In this true story about the power of love and kindness, Covington-Carter weaves a tale that spans seven decades, beginning and ending on the shores of Normandy. In it, she discovers the role that forgotten dreams play in guiding us towards our destinies.
This book is a testament to the importance of a father's love and how a caring father can change lives in ways that ripple down through the generations.
Diane Covington-Carter graduated with honors from UCLA and has received awards for her writing, photography and NPR commentaries.
She has been a life coach for more than thirty years, on a quest to discover the truth about the mysteries of happiness and love, both for herself and others.
Her May 2014 memoir, Reunion, La Réunion, Finding Gilbert tells a story that spans seven generations and chronicles how her father's stories of his time in France during World War II influenced and shaped her life.
One of the stories concerned Gilbert, a French orphan boy her father took under his wing and tried unsuccessfully to adopt and bring home to America. Fifty years after the war, Covington-Carter set out to find the man who could have become her brother.
What happened is a testament to the power of love and kindness and to the way that our dreams can guide us our destinies.
Her 2013 book, Falling in Love Backwards, an unlikely tale of Happily Ever After, co-authored with her husband, Landon Carter, tells their unusual love story. They didn't fall in love in the traditional way—a fantasy bubble that is bound to pop.
Instead, by telling the truth and tackling the real issues that come up in a relationship, they discovered a path to freedom and deep intimacy using their relationship as the vehicle.
For more information, go to
DianeCovingtonCarter.com or
FallinginLoveBackwards.com.