Barbara Bracht Donsky, a reading specialist with a former practice for children in Oyster Bay, New York, served for many years as president and capital campaign coordinator of the Boys & Girls Club of Oyster Bay – East Norwich. A Phi Beta Kappa magna cum laude graduate of Hunter College, with an MS from Long Island University and an Ed.D. from Hofstra University, she has written numerous articles and short stories for journals around the world.

For her work on behalf of the Boys &  Girls Club of Oyster Bay-East Norwich, she was honored as ‘Woman of the Year’ and cited by the Township of Oyster Bay for ‘public-spirited contributions advancing the general welfare of the community.’

She lives with her husband in New York, where she blogs at Desperately Seeking Paris.

When young Barbara Bracht’s mother disappears from her life (no one tells her that she has died), she is left a confused child whose blue-collar father is intent upon erasing any memory of his dead wife. Forced to keep the secret of her mother’s existence from her brother, Bracht struggles to keep from being crushed under the weight of family secrets as she comes of age and strives to educate herself despite her father’s stance against women’s education—a journey that culminates in a visit to her mother’s grave nearly twenty years after her death.

Narrated in a precocious, fiercely intelligent, and compelling voice, Veronica’s Grave” A Daughter’s Memoir is a heartrending story about the psychological cost of families who keep secrets—and the importance of pursuing one’s dreams and passions.