“My mind kept centering on the race to find my missing daughter, Triana. I wondered if this search would ever end. I had first lost her when she was one-year-old, and it took me eight months to find her. This time she [...]]]> Rosalie Hollingsworth
Destruction of Innocence: A True Story of Child Abduction
iUniverse, 2009, 266 pages, $20.95
ISBN: 978–1–4401–2502–7 (pbk)
(Nonfiction, Biography/Autobiography/Memoir)

“My mind kept centering on the race to find my missing
daughter, Triana. I wondered if this search would ever end. I
had first lost her when she was one-year-old, and it took me
eight months to find her. This time she had been missing for
over two years. I would search for her, and would do so until I
found her, if it took my entire life.”

Rosalie Hollingsworth, a strong, courageous, and determined
woman who lets nothing get in the way once she’s made up her
mind to do something. The something in this case is the
inconceivable journeys to regain her daughter twice after Triana
was kidnapped by her father. This is Rosalie’s story as much as it
is the story of Triana, who as a young child couldn’t understand
what, was happening. But who later learned the facts and
somehow had her mother’s stamina to overcome this horrific
period in her young life and thrive.

Rosalie, as a mother, could only imagine what it was like for Triana,
but she could not fathom the horrors of what life turned out to be
for little Triana. From rabies after being bitten by a dog, to being
raped by strange men, to the recurrent lice infestations leading to
the shaving of her hair, Triana grew up under conditions no child
should have to endure. Adjusting to Franco’s juggling of wives
(sometimes with children of their own), and by far the worst thing a
father can tell his child—that her mother was evil and that she was
dead, Triana amazingly came through it all without a deep scar.

Hollingsworth chose to structure her story as a diary, which suited
the purpose well. She takes you along on the journey to recover
Triana in hope that others in the same situation will see that with
determination and strength, the impossible may not be impossible
after all. Her pace is right on with tension building up where needed
and letting low where relief should be felt. Beginning with the first
retrieval, Hollingsworth uses a back flash in the second chapter to
reveal kidnap what led up to the kidnapping and clues us in to the
relationship between herself and Franco.

I really enjoyed reading the book especially to see the great results
in the end. The rushes of fear, followed by sighs of relief, to end
with the joy of reunion. To learn that through all the negativity
surrounding Triana’s life she went on to study nursing, showing that
her human compassion wasn’t harmed. The only thing I disliked
(having nothing to do with the mechanics itself) was the fact that
the pages came apart from page 1 through 84. It’s a shame that such
a great book couldn’t find a home with a better publishing house.
Other than that it could have benefited for a little additional editing
work but that is a minor issue. My only hope is that a serious publishing
house step up to the plate and offer a contract for a reprint of this
exceptionally well written book. This is a book all parents MUST read.
It isn’t only the parents who suffer when things go wrong; it’s the
victims (the children in the middle) that suffer the most, many too young
even to know that.

Till next time,

Gloria