The Bridesmaid's Daughter: From Grace Kelly's wedding to a homeless shelter - searching for the truth about my mother - Softcover

Giles, Nyna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1910463515 ISBN 13: 9781910463512

Publisher: September Publishing, 2018

Synopsis

A daughter's moving search to understand her mother, Carolyn Scott - once a bridesmaid to Princess Grace and one of the first Ford models - who later in life spent years living in a homeless shelter. Nyna Giles was picking up groceries at the supermarket one day when she looked down and saw the headline on the cover of a tabloid: 'Former Bridesmaid of Princess Grace Lives in Homeless Shelter.' Nyna was stunned, shocked to see her family's private ordeal made so public - the woman mentioned on that cover, Carolyn Scott Reybold, was her mother. Nyna's childhood had been spent in doctor's offices. Too ill, she was told, to go to school like other children, she spent nearly every waking moment at her mother's side at their isolated Long Island estate or on trips into the city to see the ballet. The doctors couldn't tell her what was wrong, but as Nyna grew up, her mother, who'd always seemed fragile, became more and more distant. Now Nyna was forced to confront an agonizing realization: she barely knew the woman on the magazine in front of her. She knew that her mother had been a model after arriving in New York in 1947, living at the Barbizon Hotel, where she'd met the young Grace Kelly and that the two had become fast friends. Nyna had seen the photos of Carolyn at Grace's wedding, wearing the yellow bridesmaid gown that had hung in her closet for years. But how had the seemingly confident, glamorous woman in those pictures become the mother she knew growing up - the mother who was now living in a shelter? In this powerful memoir of friendship and motherhood, Nyna Giles uncovers her mother's past to answer the questions she never knew to ask.

About this title

About the Author:

Nyna Giles is the youngest daughter of Carolyn Scott Reybold. Nyna is chief operating officer for Giles Communications, a leading public relations company. She is also a tireless advocate for the mentally ill, having served as a vice president on the board of the Association for Mentally Ill Children of Westchester for ten years. She lives in Westchester County, New York, with her husband. Eve Claxton is a writer, editor and Peabody award-winning radio producer. She's worked as editor and co-writer on many non-fiction books.

Review:

`The book unfolds like a novel - a tragic and deeply moving saga.' Robert Lacey, author of Grace and The Crown | `Straight from the heart, and told with great bravery - a fascinating and powerful story of a daughter's love for a flawed parent and the struggle to understand a tumultuous childhood.' Wendy Lawless, author of Chanel Bonfire | `One of the best personal accounts of the horror of mental illness unchecked since Susan Sheehan's Is There No Place on Earth for Me.' Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, author of Shrinks | `Poignant and courageous.' Donald Spoto, author of High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly

About this edition

• Publisher: September Publishing
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1910463515
• ISBN 13: 9781910463512
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272