The Strongbox
Searching For My Absent Father

Terry Sue Harms was on a quest. That quest, for answers concerning her paternity, ultimately encompassed most of her life. The Strongbox: Searching for My Absent Father is a compelling read. Family history mysteries are one of my favorite genres and this one is an excellent story. Harms was deprived......more

Most of us take for granted our access to personal history, things like birth records, medical history, and genealogy. For author Terry Sue Harms her lack of information regarding her birth father leads her on a lifelong search for information. Her mother dies when she is a teen and this leaves her......more

I could not put it down! I have known Terry, the author, for years. And I knew nothing about her story. How does one exactly review someone's soul and flesh written on paper? This is one of those stories. Terry wrote this in the most straightforward way possible. Some stories can only be told this w......more

As soon as I read about Harms’s compulsive cleaning to deal with the stress of her mother’s not returning home one night, I was hooked. The Strongbox is a memoir that grabs ahold of you and leaves its mark. It is a story of searching for parental love and the gratitude that comes when you finally fi......more

While reading the author's search for her absent father, I was so impressed by her tenacity and strength. Time after time, life stood up in front of her as a wall. Each time, she pulled brick by brick away to try to reach for a better life. It's a powerful story, well told.......more