When Tamar Lee’s alcoholic, drunk mother gives birth to her in Worms, Germany over a toilet, it is unfortunately a sign of what is yet to come. The abuse that Tamar and her brother Rony suffer at the hand of their mother throughout their young lives is inconceivable. At roughly four years old, her mother locks her and Rony into a sweltering sauna in their basement. When they are able to escape the next morning, they go to a neighbor’s house for help. Social services soon get involved, and they are placed in an orphanage. Eventually, Tamar and Rony’s father comes for them at the orphanage to bring them home. After two more years of recurrent chaos, they move to another town, but nothing changes in their tumultuous household. Tamar recalls one day when her mother comes into their family restaurant drunk, naked beneath her coat. Fearing she would offend the customers, Tamar’s father tries to push her upstairs toward their residency. She falls backward and lands at the foot of the stairs, unconscious and with a small pool of blood under her head. Instead of seeking medical attention for her, he leaves her lying there until she comes to the next day.
When Tamar is nine, her family moves back to the town in which she was born. Shortly afterward, both parents disappear, leaving Tamar and Rony home alone without food, heat, or working plumbing. Social workers are once again involved and transport the two siblings to a group home, then to separate foster families. When foster care doesn’t work out, Tamar transfers to an orphanage. At fourteen, her mother picks her up to bring her home. At fifteen, unable to withstand her mother’s abusive behavior any longer, she leaves home to be on her own.
Author Tamar Lee tells her compelling story with vivid details of unimaginable scenes in her memoir THE RED LOLLIPOP and recounts her emotional journey with insightful introspection and self-reflection. She miraculously survives it by continuing to look forward, having hope in her heart, and believing that tomorrow will be a better day. The way she and her brother–for whom her love and devotion is nothing short of heartwarming–often had to fend for themselves and shoulder life’s burdens alone when there was no adult support is astonishing and laudable.
In THE RED LOLLIPOP, Tamar Lee conveys a heartrending account of her childhood existence that includes nightmarish details of what she endured at the hands of her alcoholic, mean-spirited mother. Her insightful introspection and self-reflection make this memoir a compelling read.
~Florence Osmund for IndieReader