Dani was so severely neglected by her birth mother that she grew up knowing only squalor. She never went to school or the doctor, and rarely glimpsed sunlight. Desperately malnourished, she couldn’t talk and had never been toilet-trained. The social worker who took her into care had never heard of a case so horrific. The doctors believed Dani would never recover from such a terrible start in life.
Then she met the Lierows – a unique, blended family who were seeking to adopt a child. Despite being warned that she was way beyond hope of a normal life, they were instantly drawn to her and sensed a bright light behind her pale complexion. When they finally adopted her, they showered Dani with so much affection and encouragement that she came to life for the first time. Proving all the experts wrong, Dani would go on to open up and express herself in a way that no-one could have expected.
Considering the enormity of this heart wrenching true story, I’m still coming to terms with the fact that I hadn’t heard of Dani Lierow’s story before I received the book from Penguin a short while ago and I have to confess I was not only astonished at what I read but frankly disgusted that there are parents in the world today capable of such gross neglect. Dani’s Story is a tale of one girl’s continuing fight to eradicate her abhorrent memories at the hand of her birth mother – I use the term mother only because it’s factual and certainly not deserved – and the inexhaustible love and support shown by the Lierows to counteract and repair the inevitable damage done in her infancy.
This is without question an inspirational story and although the Lierows had no desire for public adulation …
