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Dear Jeff: A Father Seeks Reconciliation with His Son In Letters Rich in Hope, Joy, Despair and Grief - Softcover
Dear Jeff offers a collection of letters written by Gough endeavoring to reach a posthumous emotional reconciliation with his adopted African American son, Jeff. Seeking to fill voids in his relationship with Jeff, Gough shares experiences which greatly impacted his decision to adopt six year old Jeff and his twin sister Sheila. He describes emotionally moving events of his childhood, empathizing with the traumas of Jeff’s early years; his awakening as a young soldier to the evils of race discrimination when he ran Fort Ord’s off post housing service and blew the whistle on the Army’s unlawful connivance in racial discrimination; his summer as a civil rights volunteer in rural Mississippi in 1965; and his work as a Justice Department attorney in Mississippi in 1966 and 1967. When Gough and his wife adopted six year old Jeff and Sheila, their goal was a happy, racially integrated home. Jeff, however, proved difficult to love. Either as the result of foster home abuse or some hidden mental issue, the young man was prone to angry and destructive outbursts. Truancy, illegal acts, and incarcerations were common events. At times, in desperation Gough wondered if the family had made the right choice. He would never know. Jeff's life was cut short by a motorcycle accident. Writing with candid and often brutal honesty, Gough discusses the abuse Jeff suffered as a foster child and victim in a failed early adoption, his troubled relationship with Jeff, the mistakes he made as a father, and those precious moments when Jeff was the charming, loving, mischievous son and brother the family longed for. An insightful, personal look at both Gough and his son, exposing the intricacies of interracial adoption and raising troubled children, Gough's letters ultimately seek peace for himself, for his family, and especially, for Jeff.
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About the Author:
Kerry Gough's career and interest in civil rights began when he blew the whistle on the US Army's tolerance of racial discrimination by landlords renting to armed forces personnel
Gough and his ex-wife Judy spent the summer of 1965 living on a soybean and cotton farm with an African-American family. The next year Gough joined the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice, investigating beatings, harassment, and voter intimidation of blacks in Southeast Mississippi.
After the births of their daughter Suzanna and son Matthew, the Goughs adopted six-year-old African-American twins Jeff and Shelia.
Now retired, Gough volunteers as legal counsel to Global Strategies, a nonprofit group working to improve the lives of women and children through health care in Africa and India.
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- PublisherCreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
- Publication date2015
- ISBN 10 150330437X
- ISBN 13 9781503304376
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
- Number of pages204
- Rating
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