It was while she was growing up in an old farmhouse in Iowa, Mel become aware that her family was unlike others she knew. Her father was distant and ended up moving away. Her mother didn’t trust her, and it became obvious that she was hiding something terrible in her past.

When Mel learned that she did not have a birth certificate or a baptismal certificate, she began asking her mother the likely questions: Where was I born? Why is Dad never pleased with me? Why did someone paint Leviticus 18:22 on our mailbox? Why do you keep that strange woman’s picture on our kitchen wall? Her mother’s answers were always the same: That’s my secret.

It was only after her mother’s death when Mel discovered her journals in an army footlocker that she began to unravel the mysteries surrounding her life and learn that she was engaged to her half brother!