The Ones We Leave Behind — Deanna Lynn Sletten

Diane picked up her mother's phone. How do you feel about your mother being let out of prison today after sixty-five years? the reporter asked. Diane stared at her mother. My grandmother is alive? That one phone call hurled shock waves throughout the entire family. 1955 - Anna Bergman Craine's life changes in an instant when she commits a crime of passion and is sentenced to life in prison. Leaving behind two young children, she is left alone in the world, never to hear from family or friends again. Decades later, she is set free and finds she has a family that has chosen to forget her. What caused this beautiful, intelligent, young woman to commit such a drastic deed that would pull her away from everyone she loved? 2020 - Diane Martin is shocked to learn that not only is her maternal grandmother alive, but she's just been released after decades in prison. Against her aging mother's wishes, she visits the older woman and soon hears a tale of the events that led up to that tragic day in 1955. Diane realizes that her own life has mirrored that of her grandmother's and, had circumstances gone differently that fateful day, she might have experienced the same fate. A heart-wrenching story of a family torn apart because of a moment in time and trying to put the pieces back together after being separated for decades.