I Need To Tell You

It’s 1968 and Cathryn Vogeley is eighteen, unmarried and pregnant. With a wedding no longer an option, she decides to put her baby girl up for adoption and never think about it again. Her decision shapes the rest of her life.

For decades Cathryn allows this choice to define her value as a woman, a wife, and a mother. In every relationship, in every hobby, she searches for something or someone to soothe the constant ache in her chest created by the loss of her infant daughter. Cathryn’s search for healing reveals that her grief is not only for the child she gave up, but the childhood she lost.

This beautifully-written memoir tells the haunting story of a woman who spends almost fifty years overcoming the consequences of one decision in order to find forgiveness, understanding, and peace.

I Need to Tell You is an important testimony about a time in history that is seldom given attention in American history, a first-hand account in fairly recent history when women were separated from their children against the laws of the land and also against the laws of basic humanity. You’ll not soon forget Cathryn or her story.
— Jennifer Lauck, author of NYT bestselling memoir, Blackbird

Cathryn Vogeley tells her story in knife sharp prose that cuts to the heart – a woman who never stops searching for the child she gave up for adoption 50 years ago. It’s also the story of the great destructive power of secrets, and the sense of self she lost and ultimately recovered. I Need to Tell You is a journey of unnamable pain, great triumphs, and fierce hope. That it’s all too common a story is part of its compelling force.
— Joanna Rose, author of A Small Crowd of Strangers