This Is Us

The Foster Sister I Never Knew

Why did my parents really let her go?

Josie with my mother and brother, NYC, 1949. Image: author.

I was born three years after my parents gave my foster sister back. As far as my mother was concerned, I replaced her. My father, I’m not so sure. Josie would have been about six by then. My brother, Marc, was seven. I grew up without knowing the first thing about Josie’s existence.