The Welch Family: Survival Story

Writing must have been painful.

LW: People ask us, ''How was it possible that you were all separated?'' We grew up in a privileged community. You would think we would have been kept together. That was the most painful thing, realizing my mother could not face the fact that she was dying. Because it meant leaving us alone in the world. That's why she didn't make necessary arrangements. She couldn't admit she was going to die.

What do you think the response will be to your story?

LW: My best friend called me sobbing, saying, ''I had no idea. I am so sorry.'' We're all shocked by that response. I wrote this one scene about being my mother's night nurse that I didn't remember until I wrote it. It was one of those deep-down [memories]. I certainly wasn't going to school saying, ''I had to change my mom's bladder bag last night.'' I was the prom queen and homecoming queen at my high school. I was trying to keep these two different personas.

You end the book when you reunite after Diana, at 13, is rejected by her guardian.

LW: When we first sat down, we were like, ''We're going to do from our dad's death to our mom's death.'' And everyone's like, ''Then we'll want to kill ourselves. That's a terrible idea.''

DW: Then we were going to have it go all the way up until I graduated high school, because so many shenanigans happened when we became like Party of Five.

LW: What Diana and I realized and loved was, the book starts with me as a 13-year-old losing her father, and it ends with Diana, a 13-year-old, regaining her family. With Diana back, we could start piecing together a family that had been blown apart.