Finding Mac

Summary

This is a warm and life-affirming account, honest but never whimsical. Despite some of the difficult subjects, this memoir is overwhelmingly positive and a tribute to love.

Modern families come together in all sorts of ways – one parent, two parents; same sex, opposite sex; planned, unplanned; biological, adopted. There are examples of different sorts of families all around us.

Finding Mac tells the story of how one family came together, as Richard and his wife Swee welcome eight-year-old Mac into their lives. It recounts the highs and lows as they get to know and love each other becoming a successful family unit. Along the way it shares their experience of adoption, and particularly the experience of adopting an older child. From joining a local school, figuring out your family’s new traditions, going on holiday for the first time, and navigating the bureaucracy of the social care system.

But all that changed when Mac was killed on his motorbike, just a few months after his sixteenth birthday. Finding Mac deals honestly with the feelings of a parent who faces the death of his child, and coping with the aftermath.